


Scarlet Chicago

by District447



Series: Chicago Stories [2]
Category: Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2020-12-09 17:30:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 40,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20998646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/District447/pseuds/District447
Summary: The sequel to Sizzling Chicago is here! Detective Sarah Watson is ready to take on Chicago. When she can finally join the Intelligence team, gruesome murders get uncovered. Could it be they stumbled onto a serial killer which could endanger all of their lives?





	1. New Blood

It was a bright and early Saturday morning in late May for most in Chicago. The sun was shining brightly, the weather warm enough to finally lose the winter wear and go for a light leather jacket. Sarah Watson was just getting out of bed, ready to spend the day at home. She had joined the Chicago Police Department only days after she moved to Chicago in March. However, the only open position was a detective with the homicide unit. She happily took it, it was better than becoming a private eye or anything else that would pay the rent.

She had just put on her shirt and walked back to her bed when a sleepy voice startled her.

“Why are you up so early?” Severide asked with one eye barely open, peeping out from under the cover.

“I’m an early bird sometimes.” she smiled, leaning back into bed, pulling down the cover and giving him a quick kiss.

“Why can’t you just sleep in like every normal person on their day off?”

“Ha! Says the man who gets up at the crack of dawn when he has a boat to fix.” she laughed, pulling on her shorts and walking to the kitchen to drink her usual amount of morning caffeine. He walked out after her, dressed only in his briefs.

“Well, you are a sight for sore eyes.” she smiled as she handed him a cup of coffee. He only answered with a quick kiss, then walked to the couch and turned on the TV. The TV flickered to life on the 8am news.

“A highly decorated detective from the Chicago Police Department had been killed in prison.” the announcer’s voice rang out and Sarah almost dropped her mug. She rushed to the TV.

“Detective Alvin Olinsky was arrested earlier this month for murder and had been sent to jail. While awaiting his trial in prison, he was stabbed by another inmate…”

“Oh my God.” Sarah spoke.

“You knew him?” Severide asked, muting the TV.

“Yeah… I mean I met him a couple times, last time when I begged Voight a few months ago to hire me to Intelligence.”

“I knew him.” he stood up “He was a really good guy who had been through a lot…”

“Crap.” Sarah sighed realizing the shit storm that would be awaiting her the next time she was going to work. Severide put his cup down and hugged Sarah, allowing her to rest her head on his chest and she listened to his heartbeat to calm down a bit.

***

Weeks had passed since the Intelligence unit lost a beloved member. After grieving their loss, the biggest questions of CPD history had appeared – a detective spot opened up in the unit and it was a high stakes game. A gamble Sarah Watson knew she had to risk. So when June’s last Monday came, she drank her usual morning coffee and went straight to the 21st District of the Chicago Police Department. She walked up to Desk Sergeant Trudy Platt and put on her brightest smile and it took every ounce of her morning strength to make herself presentable and hide the bags under her eyes which appeared after the last few restless nights.

“Good morning, Sarge.” Sarah smiled and Trudy looked up from her morning papers.

“Morning, Watson.”

“By any chance, is Voight already in?”

“You know he is.”

“And would you be so kind to let me up?” Sarah smiled. Trudy looked at her for a minute, you could practically see the wheels turning in her mind.

“It’s not going to be an easy shoe to fill, Watson.” she motioned towards the stairs.

“Thanks, Sarge.” Watson smiled and walked up to the Intelligence unit’s bullpen. Bright and early, 7am – the precinct was barely alive at this time. The bullpen was empty too, but Voight was sitting in his office, going through a couple of papers. She took a deep breath and walked up to his door, gently knocking before opening the door.

“Good morning, Sarge.” Watson nodded.

“Come on in, detective Watson. You have something for me?”

“A proposition…” at the word Voight looked up at her “Or more like… an application.”

“You heard about the detective position opening up in Intelligence.”

“I did and I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I didn’t know Detective Olinsky all too well, but whenever I met him, he was the kindest soul.”

“He really was… so you know the shadow this position has.” Voight motioned for Watson to sit down in the chair in front of his desk. As Sarah moved to sit down she heard voices filling the bullpen. _Who knew the Intelligence unit was full of early birds coming in so early to work?_

“I do, but I truly believe the best way to honor his memory is to fill the position with somebody who knows and understands the sacrifice he took.”

“I saw you in action, Watson. You are not exactly a rule follower…”

“I would say, with all due respect, I know when not to follow certain rules. “she took a deep breath”, but I would not say I disobey orders.” she smiled.

“That’s a clever way to put it.” Voight smiled, but suddenly he looked past her and nodded “Well, let’s see what you can do on your first day. We’ve got a crime scene to process.”

With that Voight stood up and motioned for Watson to follow him.

“Sarge, we’ve got a body, it’s not going to be a pretty one.” Upton spoke before realizing Sarah was also there.

“Detective Watson.” Jay smiled.

“A bit of news before we head out to the scene.” Voight stood at the top of the stairs, looking back at his team “Detective Watson is working with us on this one and she just might end up staying.”

***

Watson rode with Burgess to the crime scene, which was in Humboldt Park. Watson knew all too well how volatile that neighborhood was – according to the previous year’s statistics, it was the 5th deadliest ‘hood of Chicago, right behind Englewood. 176 injuries, 26 of those were fatal and those 26 were all victims of homicide. That’s not some pretty statistics to look at.

The crime scene was next to the Stores4Rent on North Ridgeway Ave by the train tracks. That part of the avenue was nothing but garage fronts, a great place to hide anything. When Burgess stopped her car and got out, Watson followed. They were not late, body was found a couple minutes before the Intelligence unit received the call, but the place was full of cops. This was barely the worst part of the ‘hood, so that many cops seemed a bit excessive even for Watson, but she dismissed her thoughts and concentrated on the crime scene awaiting her. And just as Upton said, it was not pretty.

Behind a line of dumpsters a couple of crime scene techs were taking pictures and collecting evidence already. Watson peeked in between two dumpsters and immediately wished se had not done that. A middle aged woman lay on the ground, her black dress torn and bloody, her face beaten so badly that not an inch of bruise-free skin could be found, and something was written in black across her forehead. She stumbled back a step, almost running into Halstead.

"Hey Watson... you okay?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper so no one else could hear it.

"Yeah... just been a while since I have seen such a gruesome one." she shook her head lightly "Gangbangers getting killed or botched robberies were more of my plate."

"It takes some getting used to, but our cases are either too horrifying for other departments or are too high-profile." Jay explained, his voice back to normal.

"One thing is sure, Halstead." Sarah looked back at the woman's body "This will be all over the media real soon."

"Okay, people..." Voight's voice rang out and silence fell onto the scene "We'll need some door-to-doors. This was a dump, we are looking for a primary crime scene. So look for suspicious people, cars, anything we can use. Goes without saying, but ask around for cameras, you wouldn't believe where people can hide them - get the footage, maybe we can get lucky this time."

"She had an ID on her?" Watson stepped up to Voight, Burgess following her "We can't exactly go around showing her picture, Sarge."

Voight nodded and started looking through the list of evidence that had been collected so far.

"No ID." Voight shook his head, but he still pulled out a red taped bag "But she had her phone in her purse."

"Now that's just amateur hour, Sarge." Burgess scoffed and after pulling on gloves, she took out the phone from the bag and walked back to the victim. She carefully placed the victim!s right thumb on the screen's front print scanner which opened up the phone with a soft chime. Burger walked back to Voight.

"Phone is hers alright, her fingerprint opened it." Burgess showed them the screen.

"Open her Facebook app. "Watson suggested "Easiest way to ID her."

"Good idea, Watson." Voight nodded and Burgess opened the app on the phone. She quickly navigated to the profile page.

"Victim is Samantha Reed, born in 1982, originally from Seattle." a minute of silence followed while Burgess scrolled through the last few posts "Came to Chicago 3 days ago."

"She says why she came here?" Sarah asked, looking behind Burgess, watching as the victim was being put into a black body bag and lifted into the coroner's van.

Burgess scrolled back a few posts, slowly shaking her head while skim-reading the posts when finally

"Here we go." Burgess showed them the post.

"Broke off her engagement." Watson read off the screen.

"Came to Chicago to blow off some steam, things went sideways..." Voight spoke without looking at the phone.

"That's one theory." Watson agreed.

"Okay, let's wrap things up here and regroup at the station. We need to retrace her steps, find out where she partied - we can go from there. And get me her ex-fiance." Voight nodded then walked back to his car, got in and drove away.

"Kim..." Sarah spoke "Hey, is it okay if I call you Kim?"

"Yeah." Burgess nodded, smiling as they walked back to their car.

"It doesn't make sense to me. Why take her ID if he's leaving her phone on her? That's like the easiest way to ID someone these days."

"It's either the stupidest thing the killer did or the cockiest." Burgess motioned for Sarah to get in.

"Cockiest?" Watson raised an eyebrow as she fastened her seatbelt.

"The killer wants the victim identified, maybe he's not trying to make a Jane Doe out of her."

"If what you are saying is true... he must know her steps can be retraced via the GPS in her phone."

"Not if he was smart enougt to know to take out the battery or turn it off while he had her."

Watson sighed loudly as the streets whizzed by.

"We'll have to wait and see what the crime lab can pull off of it." Burgess said, not taking her eyes off the road.

"I'm not particularly good at the waiting game." Watson smiled, slightly shaking her head.

"Well, patience is a virtue around here, Watson." Kim smiled as she pulled into the parking lot at the 21st.

_to be continued_


	2. Modus Operandi

Watson was in the third hour of her research and by then she knew that the name Michael Brown was probably one of the most common names in the United States, right alongside the usual John Smith.

“Have you had any luck with the fiancé?” Jay stepped next to Sarah’s temporary desk.

“Turns out just because you are on Facebook, it doesn’t mean it’s so easy to find you.” Watson clicked back to CPD’s search engine “There are hundreds of Michael Browns in Seattle and our victim managed to scrub 99% of their interaction.”

“Then how’d you get his name?”

“Found a saved picture in the gallery of her phone.” Watson opened up the image on her computer “Wedding invitation plans for Samantha Reed and a Michael Brown.”

“Nice catch, print that out for the evidence board, will you?” Jay smiled then sat down to his desk.

“Did somebody get the M.E. report?” Upton asked, looking up from writing the victim’s info on their board.

“Coming right up.” Kim smiled, standing next to the printer. When it finished its job, she snatched up the pages and walked back to the team.

“So…” Upton was eager for answers.

“Time of death… approximately 5am this morning. She was severely beaten, she’s got multiple broken bones all over her body.” Kim stopped for a few seconds while Upton finished writing “And she was also raped, no viable DNA left behind.”

“Cause of death?” Jay asked.

“Asphyxiation…” Kim read “Two full handprints visible around her neck.

“Son of a bitch.” Watson shook her head “There’s something else, guys.”

“What?” Upton look at her, black marker in her hand, ready to continue the evidence board.

“Samantha’s last social media post…”

“What about it?” Atwater looked out from behind his monitor.

“An Instagram live from a Chicago bar, she let it be posted to her Facebook and Twitter.”

“Nothing strange about that, Watson.” Atwater dismissed her.

“Except that post? It was made Saturday night. No social media presence since then, except for us using her logins. Sunday is a blank on all of her accounts. And according to what the Crime Lab tech guys managed to pull from the phone so far… there’s no GPS, call or text history for that day and the phone didn’t ping off of any towers.”

“So the son of a bitch abducted her Saturday night, kept her alive the next day, torturing and raping her and then choked her and dumped her body Monday morning.” Upton summarized.

“Did we get anything from the door-to-doors?” Atwater asked. Antonio browsed through a couple of papers in front of him.

“A couple of reports of a suspicious car. One man identified it as a Honda Accord, color white.”

“That’s not going to be too helpful…” Burgess shook her head.

“Probably one of the most common cars in the U.S.” Sarah agreed “Did anybody catch the plates?”

“Sadly, no.” Antonio stood up from his desk “And there were no cameras in the neighborhood either. The ones we found were all fakes, set up as hopeful deterrents.”

“So we’ve got nothing to go on.” Atwater complained.

“We’ve got to dig deeper into the victim.” Watson offered and stood up “Let’s check out the bar she was at on Saturday.”

“Maybe she wasn’t there alone or someone noticed her leaving with someone.” Upton agreed.

“Maybe we’ll get lucky with some footage of her.” Atwater smiled.

“Slight problem, guys.” Jay spoke “Bar’s not open until 7pm.”

“Let’s grab lunch and regroup here after.” Antonio nodded and every started planning where to eat. Sarah’s phone pinged with a text.

_Up for lunch?_

She smiled at his text and after excusing herself, she walked out of the station and called Severide.

“So, where di you want to grab lunch?” Sarah asked.

“I know a plane near the station if you don’t feel like straying too far from there.”

“Sounds perfect! Text me the address and I’ll meet you there.” With that they hung up and minutes later Watson was on her way. It really was close to the station, 5 corners felt like a welcome walking distance for her, allowing Sarah to somewhat clear her head. She stopped at W 18th Street and looked at the address again.

_960 W 18th St_

Well, there was only one venue that offered to quench her hunger so she hoped that was what Severide had in mind. She stopped at front of Simone’s and was about to text him when she saw him pulling up to the nearest empty space.

“What took you so long? I got here faster and I walked.” She teased him as he approached her.

“Well, no car can ever compete with those graceful legs of yours.” he winked and pulled her in for a hug. He let go of her, then Kelly pressed his lips to hers, sliding one hand to the small of her back. Watson smiled into the kiss and she could feel him smile back. It had been a while since she felt so happy and content and she was not willing to risk what she had with Severide for anything in the world.

After a few long minutes standing out there in each other’s arms, unwilling to let go, they finally made it inside. They ate a Chicken Pesto Pizza together and he insisted on paying. When they finished eating, she took up on his offer to give her a ride back to the station – that pizza was way bigger than she thought.

He pulled up to the only free spot in front of the station, but she felt unwilling to go.

“Not a great idea to be late on your first day, Sarah.” Kelly smiled, giving her a quick kiss. She gripped the collar of his shirt, tugging him toward her, giving him a challenging grin. She closed the gap, pressing her lips to his, kissing him until they became both breathless. A soft knocking on the passenger side window was what made them fly apart. With a smile she said goodbye and got out. Jay was standing in front of her.

“Isn’t this your first day, Watson?” he teased her, softly laughing.

“Like that did not happen to you ever, Halstead.” She smiled, blushing a bit to her “dislike” then followed Jay back into Intelligence’s bullpen.

It was 3pm, and even after the generous lunch hour they had, there was still a couple of hours to go before the bar opened.

“Okay, how do we go from here?” Kim voiced what everyone had on their mind.

“I’m going to do a deep dive in the system.” Watson said as she sat down at her desk.

“Looking for what, Watson?” Voight was standing in his doorway.

“Murders with similar MOs.” she explained “Our best bet besides waiting for the bar to open.”

Voight didn’t disagree, but looked at the others, waiting for their responses.

“We also need to find her ex-fiancé, Michael Brown.” Jay pointed at the name on their evidence board.

“Sometimes it’s all just about messy break-ups and nothing else.” Atwater agreed.

“Okay.” Voight took a step forward “Jay, you and Hailey coordinate with Seattle PD, find Michael Brown. Watson, do your research, but don’t overdo it. Don’t look for connections that aren’t there. Adam, you and Kev check with the ME and the crime lab for updates.” Voight walked back into his office and sat down at his desk.

“Guess that means you are stuck with me, Kim.” Sarah said without looking up from her screen.

“Let’s give your research a shot. Finding a Michael Brown is the equivalent of finding a John Smith in any state.” Kim smiled and sat down next to Watson.

Two hours later both women were about to finish up when Watson had one last idea.

“It might be a long shot, but I think it’s worth giving it one last try.” Sarah explained as she pulled up another browser page. The page loaded slowly, but when it finally did, Watson entered a few key details, such as rape, asphyxiation, female victim. The first search was limited to the state of Illinois and the past 5 years.

“More than 50 hits…” Kim read from the screen “We’ve got to narrow that down.”

Sarah added a few more details and hit the search button again.

“That’s better.” Watson nodded and clicked on the one casefile the new search produced.

Watson shook her head slowly as she read through the file.

“Helen Heather Smith, 27 years old, found in Harvey, Illinois. Died on 29th May 2017. She lived and grew up in Clarendon Hills, Illinois.” Sarah read from the screen.

“Wow, Clarendon Hills is one of the richest towns in the state. Harvey, however, was voted first on the top 10 worst places to live in Illinois.” Kim explained as Sarah didn’t know any of those places “Anything else?”

“Helen was kidnapped on the 27th, two days before her death. She was last seen having fun with her best friend at a bar. Body was found Monday morning by a dog walker.” Sarah clicked to another report “She was tortured, raped and choked to death, dumped on the street and slut was written on her forehead.”

“Holy shit.” Kim looked at the crime scene photos “That’s exactly like our case.”

“I’m going to cast a wider net.” Watson said as she recalibrated the search to every state in the US. The computer chimed with two more hits.

“Kim…” Sarah looked at her “We’ve got a serial killer on the loose.”

_to be continued_


	3. In the Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys that this took so long, but I hope it was worth the wait ;)

Chapter 3: In the Shadows

Watson and Burgess requested every piece of evidence available for the 3 other cases they had found and the team had been putting together the evidence boards for the past few hours.

“I can’t believe he has been getting away with this for years.” Upton shook her head lightly as she put up the last pictures.

“His luck is about to run out.” Ruzek said as he stood in front of the four boards.

“Okay, what do we have so far?” Voight walked out of his office “Let’s hear it.”

Sarah stood up from her desk and walked to the board marked with #1.

“The first victim we could find in the system was Alison Maureen. She was a 24-years-old PPE student from Henderson, Nevada. She was studying philosophy, politics and economics at UAB…” she looked at the board “University of Alabama at Birmingham.”

“Alison was last seen at the XS Nightclub in Las Vegas, April 16th 2016, a Saturday. Her body was found behind a dumpster in a pretty rough neighborhood the following Monday.” Upton pointed at the timeline she drew on the board.

“Severely beaten, raped and slut written on her forehead. Cause of death: asphyxiation.” Sarah continued.

“Any suspects?” Voight asked.

“LVPD picked up her boyfriend as a person of interest. He was 16 years older than Alison. But he was let go due to lack of evidence.” Kim read from the file in her hand.

“Case went cold.” Adam shook his head.

“Next victim was Susan Fletcher, a 32-year-old kitchen assistant.” Sarah explained as she stepped over to the board marked with #2 “Went missing on November 24th 2016, found dead two days later, dumped and manner of death is the same. Everything matches with Alison’s case.”

“Susan was born and raised in Las Vegas, went missing after a night out with a couple of her friends celebrating her new job.” Upton read from the file.

“Okay, LVPD ever made an arrest?” Voight asked.

“No, they made the connection to Alison’s case, but no new evidence came to light, so this one went cold too.” Adam explained.

Only a few things made Ruzek more upset than unsolved cases.

“There was roughly a same length break between the 2nd and the 3rd victims as well. Helen Heather Smith was the 3rd. Died on May 29th 2017.” Sarah moved onto the next board.

“Dumped onto a street in Harvey, Illinois.” Kim took a deep breath “When the trail went cold, Harvey PD just moved on.”

“They never made the connection to the first two victims?” Voight shook his head lightly.

“Nope. So this bastard was back to kidnapping and murdering women at his own free will.” Adam as he made a fist, digging his fingernails into his palm so he wouldn’t let his anger take over.

“And the 4th is our victim, Samantha Reed.” Sarah finished, stepping to board #4.

“I doubt it’s going to be the ex-fiancé, Sarge.” Atwater spoke first, after a long minute of silence.

“Nevertheless, we have to dot every i, and cross every t, Kev.” Voight said, walking into the middle of the bullpen, standing in front of the four boards.

“These women deserve justice, and we are going to give it to them.” he said, before turning to face his team “Find anything and everything common between these women. If Samantha Reed is truly the 4th victim, the timeline is off. It took a year for this pervert to kill again?”

“If we take the timeline literally, there are 6-7 months between two victims.” Sarah ran the math quickly in her head “That means we might be missing a victim from Fall 2017.”

“We shouldn’t be, I mean, the database should always be kept up to date.” Kim shook her head.

“Maybe there’s another reason for a longer break then.” Upton nodded.

“Find me answers!” was all Voight said then walked down the stairs, leaving his team.

***

Several hours later, feeling defeated at not finding satisfactory answers, the team decided to take the other approach. They still had to go to the bar where Samantha partied before going missing. Sarah opted not to go to the bar, she felt tired and spent. Jay, Hailey, Kevin, Adam and Voight were more than enough on the scene, so she went home to get some nice dinner and relax a bit. She got home, dropped her stuff onto the nearest chair and went straight to the kitchen. She was just about to grab a beer when her doorbell rang.

“Who the hell is that?” she cursed under her breath as she slammed her fridge door closed and walked back to the door. She yanked it open and asked.

“Yes?”

“I was hoping you’d be happier to see me.” Kelly stood on the other side of the door, a big box of pizza in his hand. As soon as she realized who was at the door, she let herself smile and let him in with a quick apology kiss.

“Sorry, it was a long day and I’ve got a bad feeling about the case we’re working on.”

He placed the box of pizza on the kitchen counter, dropped his coat onto the same chair Sarah did earlier, then walked back to her and placed his hands on her hips.

“Talk to me.”

“I shouldn’t.”

“Not like you haven’t shared any other case with me before…” he smiled, pulling her closer to him.

“Fine.” she sighed, then pulled him in for a quick, but passionate kiss. They walked back to the sofa in the living room and sat down next to each other, then she leaned her head on his shoulder.

“From the looks of it, we’ve got a serial killer out there, kidnapping, raping, torturing and killing young women.”

Severide didn’t say a word, he just put an arm around her, pulling her closer to himself.

“This sick son of a bitch has been killing for at least two years. The earliest case we could find was from April 2016. A 24-year-old PPE student, she went to Las Vegas for a photography conference and was kidnapped after a night out with her best friend. She was found two days later in an alley between the trash.”

“That’s horrible.” he shook his head slowly.

“I won’t horrify you with the other three cases, but I have to figure out how to catch this psycho. Besides getting justice for these women and taking a murderer off the streets, it could be my ticket into Intelligence.”

“And here I thought police work was all about justice and stuff.” Severide tried joking.

“Bad timing on that one.” she couldn’t help but smile.

“I still got you to smile, didn’t I?” he winked at her, then placed a finger under her chin to make her face him and gave her a passionate kiss. Without letting him go, she sat up, hopping on Severide’s lap. His hands started to wander down her sides, then pulled her closer to him at the waist. A low moan escaped her lips, giving him time to find her sweet spot. He kissed his way down her throat and her collarbone, making her moan again.

With a wicked grin, she pushed him lightly back against the sofa, moving a few inches back, sliding his pants down his legs. He tried pulling her back to him, but instead, she got on her knees and soon his hands clenched her shoulder as he squirmed in his seat, groaning in pleasure. A few minutes passed before he had enough and pulled Sarah up, kissing her full on the mouth. She quickly got rid of her pants as well and crawled back onto his lap, straddling Severide’s hip.

Slowly, she began to rock back and forth, fumbling with her fingers to take off his shirt while his hands were caressing her thighs. When she finally managed to take off his shirt, he tangled his hands in her hair, pulling him in for a deep kiss. She put her hands on his chest, steadying herself. She let out a contented sigh as his fingers continued playing with her hair.

“You’re amazing.” he smiled.

“I love you, too.” she grinned then he ran his lips along her neck and shoulders as he started moving his hips harder against her. Her senses started kicking into overdrive, so she started kissing a hot trail down his neck to get back at him. She could hear his breath catch in his throat as she found his sweet spot. He gripped her waits, pulling her flush against him. She planted her hands on the sofa behind him for balance, also pinning him in place. Going faster and faster, she finally threw her head back with a cry of relief as the sensation took over her body, clutching his neck as he rode to bliss as well.

She slipped off of him, quickly pulling back her pants and he redressed as well. She sat back onto the couch, next to him and he pulled her close to him.

“The pizza might have gone cold.” she chuckled and he let out a small laugh as well.

“While reheated pizza is not the best, it’s still pizza.” he smiled.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m suddenly hungry.” she said, standing up.

“I might know the reason for that.” he winked as he stood up as well and they moved to the kitchen to have the dinner he came over for. She smiled as she watched him eat, she still couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have found him and how safe she felt while she was with him. Sometimes she still felt guilty for leaving her friends and her job at NCIS, but whenever she was with him, he made her forget all that guilt. She felt safe and ready to take on anything the world threw at her… and she had no idea what was waiting for her next.

**to be continued**


	4. Bullets of Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy another chapter of Scarlet Chicago, it's a bit longer than my usual chapters! :)

After Watson and Severide finished eating, she washed their plates while he walked to the window of her living room, looking out onto the quiet street. Just a few houses away was a more busier street, but the traffic’s noise didn’t seep in and though there was no exact view of the cities skyscrapers from her living room, the lights still shone brightly , illuminating the night. When she finished, she walked up to him and hugged him from behind.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“How beautiful this city can be when it’s calm… and how lucky I am.” he smiled, grabbing her hands and pulling her in front of him.

“What are you thinking?” it was his time to ask.

“That eating pizza twice a day… I’ll just have to exercise more.” she grinned.

“I believe we have done some of that already.” he laughed.

“Oh, no doubt, we’ve burnt some calories before dinner.” she chuckled and gave him a quick kiss “On a more serious note, I’ve been sometimes afraid that this all just too good to be true and that I’ll wake up one day in my waaay less luxurious condo in DC…”

“The only thing you need to worry about is seeing my morning face after I stay over.” he winked.

“Oh come one, I’ve seen your morning face a couple of times already, it’s nothing to worry about. Those blue eyes will always save the day.” she chuckled and gave him another kiss.

“Let’s get some Netflix going, huh? Take your mind off of things?” he smiled.

“Is Kelly Severide suggesting Netflix & Chill?” she grinned “We all know how that’s going to end…” she planted another kiss on his lips before walking back to the couch.

“You never know, we might find something interesting enough to binge…” he laughed and followed her.

Just as Kelly sat down to join her, two distinct pops sounded from the street. She jumped up from the couch.

“Were those…?” he looked at her, worried.

“Gunshots.” was all she said as she gathered her coat and gun “You stay here, okay?” but she was out the door before he could answer. And he was all too stubborn to just sit and wait, so he grabbed his coat and run after her. He knew she was going to be pissed at him, but in that moment, he didn’t care – he just wanted to make sure she was safe.

“Chicago PD. Stop!” he heard her shouting from just a couple of houses down the street and fading as she was running towards the corner, then another gunshot rang out and she disappeared from his eyesight. He picked up his pace and stopped right at the corner, peeking out from behind a tree. Sarah was crouching behind an SUV and as she heard a noise, she turned around and noticed him.

“What the hell are you doing??” she asked “Get down before you get yourself shot!” she motioned for him and he rushed behind another car. She took a peek out from her cover and a bullet whizzed right by her, she dropped back down and pulled out her phone, switching to the radio.

“2150 Sierra – 10-1, 10-1, shots fired at the police!” Watson looked up at the nearest building, she was still fairly new to the city, so addresses were not coming naturally to her “Address is 1100 South Throop Street. Requesting immediate assistance.”

She put the phone back into her pocket just as she heard the units on the citywide call going out. She looked back to where Severide was crouching.

“You don’t move an inch unless someone tries to shoot you.”

He nodded and watched her kick into action. Watson moved swiftly, like a shadow, behind another car, trying to get a better glimpse of the situation that was unfolding in front of her. She peeked out and saw two guys waving guns at each other, arguing, and another guy down on the ground. He was in a bad shape, but Sarah had no way of reaching him.

“Chicago PD. Drop your weapons!” she ordered and the two thugs immediately turned towards her, guns focused at her.

“Or what bitch?” came the answer.

“You’ve got your buddy of yours bleeding out right in front of you. Don’t you want to save him?”

“That fucking rat can rot in hell.” the guy in the yellow coat yelled and in a flash he fired another round into the guy on the ground. Headshot, there’s no coming back from that. Before she could answer, she heard the first sound of a siren, closing in on their location. Finally, some back up was coming!

“Look guys, there’s about to be a lot more cops around here. How about we end this before that?”

“You gonna listen to a cop, bro?” the other guy in a red coat sounded panicked.

“The only way this ends good for either of you, if you drop your guns now and surrender.” she was still safe behind the car, unless they aimed for her head. Her gun’s aim slowly moving between the two guys.

“Can you count bitch? There’s two of us and one of you!” yellow coat guy argued “How about I shoot you dead and get the fuck out of here?”

“You are welcome to try and see who can aim and shoot faster.” Sarah tried to keep them talking. She sensed movement from behind her, from where she was in cover previously, but she was focused on the two offenders in front of her. Red coat guy noticed the movement two and started shooting that way.

“Fuck the police!” he yelled and fired off two rounds. The moment the second bullet left his gun, Sarah fired off her gun as well, one bullet hitting his chest straight in the middle. As soon as his body hit the ground, his yellow coat buddy dropped his gun and started running. Before Watson could follow, two officers rounded the corner and took off after him in pursuit. She was glad she didn’t have to run, not after that pizza she downed for dinner.

“Watson!” a familiar voice called out her name. Jay was kneeling behind the same SUV Sarah did before. She jogged back to him after sensing the urgency in his voice.

“What?” she asked when she reached him. But before Jay could have answered, she dropped to her knees and took over, keeping pressure on the wound.

“I’m going to kill you myself one of these days!” she said, fighting hard not to choke up on her words, tears welling in her eyes. She pushed down harder on his left shoulder as blood started seeping through her fingers.

“It’s not that bad, right?” Severide asked, wincing when she pushed down harder.

“It’s not so good either…” she shook her head lightly, trying to keep pressure on his wound, while Jay requested an ambulance.

“I need to check on the two guys, you okay here?” Jay turned to Sarah.

“Yeah, just go.” she nodded. Jay jumped up and ran to the two guys on the ground.

“Why couldn’t you just stay put?” she asked, a tear falling down.

“I guess I’m just too stubborn?” he tried joking, but the pain from his shoulder was written all over his face.

“We’re going to have to work on that.” she smiled and she didn’t try to stop the tears anymore. He reached up with his right hand and wiped away a few teardrops from her face.

“Would you try and not act like it’s my funeral or something?” he grinned and she laughed, then leaned down while maintaining pressure on his wound and planted a kiss on his forehead.

“Can’t promise anything.” she smiled, but before she could continue her thoughts, the paramedics arrived and took over. Watson took a few steps back, letting them work on Kelly and she almost bumped into Jay, who was walking back to them.

“You’ve got to stop bumping into me, Watson.” he smiled “The two other guys are dead.”

“We need to get CSU out here…” she started, but Jay just shook his head, still smiling.

“They’re already on their way. Voight too. And the officers caught up to our 3rd guy, who’s on his way back to the precinct now.”

“I thought… this was supposed to be a good neighborhood, Jay.” Sarah shook her head, looking at her hands covered in Severide’s blood.

“It still is, Watson. It’s Chicago, there will always be somebody trying to settle an argument with guns. The only difference between the neighborhoods, is the number of shootings per week.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m in Texas with the amount of guns out there.” Sarah smiled. The paramedics were loading Kelly into the ambulance and Sarah rushed up to them, Jay following her.

“I want to go with him.” she declared, standing next to the gurney, grabbing one of Kelly’s hand.

“You can’t, Watson.” Voight’s voice rang out from behind her.

“Sarge…”

“First on scene and involved in a shooting. You are not going anywhere.”

“Where are you taking him?” Sarah asked the paramedics, still not letting go of Kelly’s hand.

“Med.” came the short answer.

“I’ll catch up with you there.” she smiled at him, planting a kiss on the back of his hand “I love you.”

She let go of him and watched as the ambo took him away. It felt like a piece of her heart was ripped out and he took it with him.

“Let’s get this over with.” Sarah turned around to face Voight.

***

After she was released from the scene, Sarah rushed to Med right away. She ran right through the waiting room, ignoring the check-in nurse’s shouting. Watson sprinted straight to Maggie Lockwood, who held the key to all the information flowing through the hospital as Maggie was the charge nurse at the Emergency Department. Sarah had been at Med quite a few times during her previous stay and not just as a patient, but as a visitor as well. She knew the rooms and hallways of the ED all too well.

“Maggie!” was all she managed to say as she caught up with Maggie.

“Sarah?”

“Where is he?” her heart was racing and not just from running. Maggie pushed a few buttons.

“Still in surgery.”

“It’s been an hour…” Watson looked at her watch “Who’s doing the surgery?”

“He’s in good hands, Sarah...”

“Who?”

“Dr. Rhodes.”

“Oh thank God…” she sighed “I want to be there when he comes out of surgery.”

“Strictly speaking…” Maggie lowered her voice so that only Sarah could hear her “You know I couldn’t let you up, right?”

Watson just nodded, she didn’t feel like making a scene, so she hoped for the best. Maggie finally smiled and called April Sexton to them and April became the charge nurse until Maggie would be back. Then she motioned for Sarah to follow her towards the elevators and took Watson up to the ICU waiting room.

“I know you had no obligation to do that, Maggie.” Sarah started before she took a seat “I’ll be forever grateful for this.”

“Don’t worry about it, Sarah. Just make sure neither of you turn up in my ED for a while.”

“Can’t make any promises on that, but we’ll try.” Sarah smiled and after a quick hug, Maggie went back down to continue working and Sarah was left alone in the waiting room. The next hour went by excruciatingly slowly, she had checked her phone at least 20 times, paced around the waiting room 3 times and she was about to go mad. Waiting wasn’t really one of her strengths. She had always been a woman of action, ready to jump at opportunities, to chase down leads. But waiting? A stake-out? Felt like dying a slow and agonizing death. Watson was ready to go to battle with whoever was at the nurse’s station of the ICU for any viable information, so she stepped out of the waiting room and stormed up to the nurse sitting at the station.

“Hi, my name’s Detective Watson and I need information on a patient, Kelly Severide.”

“Do you have a warrant?” the nurse asked without looking up from the screen.

“No, but…”

“Are you next of kin?” came the next question, still no eye-contact.

“Well… technically no…”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t help you, detective.”

“Look, he’s my boyfriend and he was brought in with a gunshot wound to his left shoulder, Dr. Rhodes is doing the surgery, but it’s been two hours.”

“I can’t give out information, I’m sorry. But you are welcome to wait and Dr. Rhodes will come find you after the surgery.

Before Sarah could argue further, the door to the operating rooms opened up and they rolled out a patient into the nearest ICU room. Sarah couldn’t see who it was, but her heart skipped a beat when she saw Connor Rhodes walking out after them. She rushed to him.

“Connor!”

“Ah, Agent Watson. Been a long time.” Connor smiled and they shook hands.

“It’s Detective now.” Sarah smiled “How’s Kelly?” she asked the question she’d been waiting to get an answer to for hours.

“The bullet hit the subscapular artery, so he lost a great amount of blood, but we managed to repair it, he’s good as new.” Rhodes explained as he walked Sarah to Kelly’s room “He’s still out due to the pain meds, another half an hour or so and he should be waking up.”

Sarah quickly wiped a tear away that was threatening to fall.

“I’d say he needs to stay away from work for the next couple of shifts, before he is back to a 100%, but I don’t expect to keep him admitted longer than a few days, if everything goes okay.”

“Thank you, Connor. You have probably saved our lives more than we can count.” Sarah smiled.

“That’s what I’m here for.” he smiled then turned to the nurse at the station “Page me when Lieutenant Severide wakes up!” with that he left Sarah at the door. She just stood outside, watching him through the glass for a couple of minutes, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. She finally walked in and pulled up a chair, took off her coat, draped it over the chair and sat down. She sat on his right side, and she carefully took his right hand into hers.

“I love you.” she said, planting a kiss on his hand, but before she could say anything else, a soft knock startled her. She looked up and saw Voight walking through the door.

“Watson.” Voight nodded “How’s the Lieutenant?”

“Uhm… bullet hit an artery, he lost a lot of blood, but Dr. Rhodes managed to repair the damage. He should be waking up soon.”

“That’s good to hear. Listen, the shooting? Gang members argued over some dope and decided to settle it with bullets. Nothing else.”

Sarah shook her head slowly.

“If he just stayed put…”

“He’s a stubborn man, I know.” Voight nodded “Look, I also wanted to tell you, we have security footage from the club.”

“We have the bastard on tape?” Sarah looked up at Voight finally.

“Not exactly.” he shook his head “No footage from inside, a camera picked up the Honda outside and we can see our victim, but not the offender. He is smart enough to avoid cameras.”

“Shit…” Sarah cursed, her mind racing again “What about the plates on the Honda?”

“Stolen.” came the short answer.

“We need to scan the city’s cameras, Sarge. We need to look for that car, find out where it had been.” Watson said, standing up.

“Any ideas? We don’t have the time or the manpower to watch thousands of hours of footage, Watson.”

“I might have a friend who could help us.” Sarah nodded “If you can get me the info, I’ll make the call.”

“NCIS?”

“I still have some friends left.” Sarah smiled.

Voight nodded, then started to leave.

“See you tomorrow morning, Watson.”

Sarah nodded, then sat back down next to Severide, taking his hand into hers again. She was not one to pray, but she felt helpless and open to suggestions on how to make herself feel better. Waiting… again. The one thing she hated the most. She also felt helplessly alone. While she had friends in the city, most of them were work friends of hers or of Kelly. And suddenly she realized, she still had the hardest call the make. She had to notify Kelly’s friends and co-workers at Firehouse 51. Sarah had a long night ahead of her that she wished she could just skip right through, but time travel was only a thing in movies and TV shows…

_to be continued_


	5. The Shadow of the Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy and feel free to leave comments! :)

Sarah awoke to her phone’s persistent ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket and answered it.

“Watson.” voice still sleepy, looking at the clock in Severide’s room. 7am.

“We’ve caught another one.” Halstead was on the other side of the phone “You need to get here ASAP.”

“Text me the address, I’ll be there.” she put her phone back into her pocket and slowly and carefully stood up from the chair she had spent the night in. She stretched out her rigid muscles.

_I should have taken the couch, like Connor suggested_, she thought, but Sarah was reluctant to let go of Kelly’s hand. Not while she was there. She leaned down and planted a small kiss on his forehead.

“I have to go, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.” with that she pulled on her coat and walked out into the light, breezy morning. She sat into her car, put the address into the GPS and started for the crime scene. The body was found in an alley between W. Cortez Street and W. Augusta Blvd. Only garages were in the alley, so she held out some hope for security camera footages. Although the crime scene was only 3,5 miles from Chicago Med, the rush hour traffic was flowing through the city in every direction, so it took Watson almost 30 minutes to get there. She parked on W. Cortez Street and walked back to the crime scene, where she joined Halstead, Voight and Upton.

“It’s exactly like the four others.” Halstead pointed towards the body when Watson arrived. Sarah just nodded and took a step forward to take a better look at the victim. She almost screamed when she recognized her.

“Oh my God…” she took a step back and turned around, trying her best not to gag at the horrific view.

“What Watson? I though you’ve seen worse.” Upton looked at her, one eyebrow raised.

“No, it’s not… I know her.” she finally got the words out and turned back to them.

“Who is it?” Voight urged her.

“It’s Dolly.” Sarah took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, avoiding looking at the victim “Dolores Sanchez, she was my downstairs neighbor.”

“You know her well?” Voight inquired further.

“I wouldn’t say we were best friends, but we got along. We would chat for a couple of minutes when we ran into each other. She worked at the Starbucks a couple of streets from our house.”

“Anyone in her life we should be looking at?” Upton pulled out a notepad from her pocket.

“I vaguely remember her mentioning she has a fiancé, who lives on the other side of town.”

“You have a name for him?”

“Not off the top of my head, but I’m sure her Facebook or Instagram account will tell us more.”

“CSU found anything?” Voight looked at Halstead.

“Only DNA on the scene is the victim’s, no fingerprints. Atwater and Burgess have been canvassing the area and one house had a real camera set up over their garage. We have new footage on the white Honda, but at first glance, the driver is not visible.” Jay explained.

“Sarge, I’ll need all the info we have on this car. I’ll make the call.” Sarah turned to Voight, who just nodded.

***

Watson went back to the 21st district with Burgess, who then helped her gather everything they had so far on the car. Sarah thanked Kim for her help and then grabbed her laptop and moved into an empty interrogation room. She shot a text message to her friend, then fire up her Skype and placed a video call. After a few rings, a familiar face greeted her in Abby’s lab.

“McGee!” she smiled.

“Watson. How’s it going in the Windy city?”

“It has its moments.” she smiled “Look, I need your help, or Abby’s if you are busy…”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” Sarah asked, utterly confused.

“Abby, she… she quit. She moved to London and opened a shelter…”

“I didn’t know!” Sarah was genuinely shocked, she had always thought Abby would be the last to leave right along with Gibbs.

“So, how can I help, Sarah?” McGee asked as she heard him typing.

“You’ve got access to that Kaleidoscope software our LA office uses?”

“To some extent, yeah. Why?”

“I need a car traced. I need to know where it has been in the past month, but it might not be so easy.”

“Just send me a picture of the car with the license plate and it should be doable.”

Sarah clicked and typed and sent over whatever they had on that car. Which was not a lot.

“License plates are probably stolen.” she noted as McGee opened her e-mail, but before he could answer, a shriek came from behind him and finally Bishop appeared on Sarah’s screen.

“Oh my God, Sarah, is that really you?”

“Yeah, it’s me, Ellie. It’s good to see you too!”

“So what are you up to these days?” Ellie asked, smiling.

“Trying to chase down a serial killer.”

“Good old Chicago, right?” Ellie shook her head and Watson nodded, smiling.

“You were not kidding, Sarah. A white Honda like that? There are probably thousands of it just in Chicago.” McGee sighed.

“Hence my cry for help, McGee. We can’t comb through every inch of footage from the city.”

“But the Kaleidoscope can.” McGee nodded “I’m running it now.”

“Thank you. We need to find and nail this bastard!”

“No promises on this one, Sarah.” McGee shook his head slowly as he watched the Kaleidoscope scan through the thousands of cameras Chicago had.

“It’s more than what we can do from our side, so, I’ll owe you one, McGee.” Watson smiled.

“You know,” Ellie started “we really miss you around here. It’s not the same without you and now that Abby quite as well… who am I going to have a girls’ night with?”

“You are always welcome to visit me here, Ellie.” Sarah smiled “I could use one of our girls nights once I nail this case.”

“Count me in!” Sloane’s voice rang out from the background.

“Hey, Jack!” Sarah waved into the camera.

“Chicago treating you well?”

“There are still some hurdles to overcome, but I’m almost there. Not a special agent anymore, just a detective, but I’m working my way into the Intelligence unit.” Watson explained.

“Sarah…” McGee started “the Kaleidoscope got some hits, I’ll send them over to you, but you’ll still need to do some legwork on them.” he said as he hit a few keys on the computer and Sarah’s laptop chimed a few seconds later, announcing her new e-mail.

“Oh wow, McGee. I thought this was going to take days.” Watson said and she opened the e-mail. There were 30 pictures of the white Honda they had been looking for, all in different parts of the city.

“Thank you, McGee. You might have just handed me the key to solve the case.” with that they said goodbye and Bishop and Watson agreed to find some time for a night out, partying.

Sarah scooped up her stuff and practically ran back into the bullpen. By then, the rest of the Intelligence unit was back as well.

“I have a lead on the car.” Watson announced, smiling “Or more like 30 leads.” she showed the pictures on her laptop.

“How on Earth, Watson?” Ruzek looked at her, practically in shock.

“A little birdie from NCIS helped. This goes back a month, that’s the furthest he could go.”

“Okay, good job Watson.” Voight nodded “We need to identify the places, check what points of interest are in their vicinity.”

When everybody sat down to their desks to start working, Sarah walked into Voight’s office.

“Sarge, I have a request…” she started, but Voight held up a hand to stop her.

“Take the laptop with you and have your phone next to you. The guys will send you the exact locations they have identified and you can research the area.”

“Thank you.” Sarah smiled, a single teardrop glistening in her eye.

“Be there when he wakes up, Watson.” Voight nodded “He was there when you almost bit the dust.”

“Thank you.” was all she could say again without bursting into tears.

***

Watson had arrived to the ICU of Chicago Med an hour later with so many stuff with her that she looked like she was about to move in permanently. Kelly was still out, sleeping ever so peacefully that she couldn’t help but smile and let a few teardrops fall. She kissed his forehead and squeezed his hand, signaling that she was here, but she got no response. The rest of the afternoon went by in a blur, she kept working hard, trying to find a frequented location amongst the picture of the Honda. They had no picture of the car being parked on the street, so she automatically assumed properties with access to a garage or any other type of building to store a car. But the Honda Accord was probably one of the most common cars in the US, so it was lucky the Kaleidoscope could ID it in 30 different pictures.

Soon day turned into night and Sarah put away her laptop and stood up to stretch her back out before settling in for another night at the hospital. This time, she decided to take the couch as there was no way her back would survive another night in the chair. She had been sleeping for a while when she awoke to some commotion outside Kelly’s room. Nurses and at least two doctors were running and code blue blared from the speakers. She immediately jumped up and looked at Kelly’s monitor, then let out a long sigh when she realized that the code blue was not for him. She sat down into the chair next to his bed and took his hand in hers. She squeezed his hand lightly from time to time, hoping for any kind of reaction from him. The clock was quickly turning and time was flying by, it was already 3am and Sarah had still been awake – that code blue shook her out of her sleepiness and she was wide awake. She knew she was going to regret it in the morning, but there was no way she could fall asleep then. She squeezed his hand again and this time, the miracle she had been waiting for, finally happened. He squeezed back. She sat up straight in the chair and looked up at his face. He was slowly opening his eyes and she finally let those tears fall that she was holding back up until that moment.

“Hi.” was all she could manage in between the small sobs that rocked her body.

“Hey…” his voice was hoarse and he felt parched.

“How are you feeling?” Sarah smiled, wiping away the tears that wouldn’t stop falling.

“I… I feel like… I slept for a year…” he spoke slowly and she handed him the cup of water on his nightstand and he slowly sipped away at it.

“You gave us quite a scare.” Sarah nodded “How about you listen to me next time and stay put?”

“I’ll try…” he smiled and she planted a small kiss on his forehead.

“I’ll let the nurses know you’re up, Connor wants to take a look at you.”

He just nodded and she practically ran out the door, up to the nurses’ station to let them know Kelly was up. She felt like she had been pinned under a heavy rock ever since he was shot and now that feeling lifted from her soul and she felt alive again. She knew Kelly was not going to be happy when Connor would tell him that he needs to sit out a couple of shifts, but he was alive and that was all that mattered to her in that moment.

_to be continued_


	6. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

A couple of days had passed since Severide finally woke up and was released from the hospital. Sarah was trying her best to help him with whatever he needed at home. His left hand had to be in a sling for another week before he would get the all clear and could go back to work. For the first couple of days, the instructions from Rhodes were very strict: stay in bed all day, minimize walking and sitting, and relax as much as possible so that the muscles could heal evenly. For a man of action, like Severide, this was equal to a slow and painful death. Sarah had stayed home with him on the days he would have had to work and on the rest, his friends from Firehouse 51 took care of him. Sarah couldn’t stay at home all the time, not when she still had a serial killer to catch.

“I’m going stir crazy.” he sighed as he flipped through the channels on the TV. He was sitting on the couch in the living room.

“It’s just one more week.” she smiled, drinking a big cup of coffee, standing at the kitchen isle “Casey is coming over after shift and I have to run soon.”

“Ooh, I hope he brings some beer…” Kelly smirked.

“You know that it’s either painkiller or beer, right?” she laughed and walked over to him, giving him a small kiss. But instead of letting her go, he grabbed her hand with his right hand and pulled her down onto his lap. He winced a bit as she settled into his lap.

“I’d say from the look on your face to choose the painkillers.” she smiled and gave him a kiss. He held her close with his right hand and she didn’t resist. The warmth of his closeness warmed her soul to its core and she needed it. The serial killer she had been chasing was still at large, and they were no closer to catching him.

It was Friday already and Watson was looking forward to a quiet weekend. They have been digging up anything they could find on the victim’s ever since Dolly had been found on the previous Sunday. Plus with Severide being in the hospital and with the strict rules at home, they skipped the 4th of July celebrations that week, but by Friday he was aching for a good barbecue with his firehouse family.

“I have to go.” Sarah said after giving him a small kiss again and she stood up. This time he didn’t hold her back.

“I’ll see you tonight.” he smiled then refocused on the TV as she finished dressing up and finally left for work.

***

This time Sarah was not the first to arrive at work, but nobody said anything. They were all knee deep in their work, trying to make sense of the new evidence received from the crime lab techs that morning. Sarah jumped right in as well.

It was almost 10am when Voight stepped out of his office and addressed his team.

“What do we have?”

Sarah looked up at the others, trying to figure out who starts usually. Since no one stood up, she decided to grab the opportunity to be first.

“I’ve been untangling Dolly’s call history. There is a day gap on her phone, no calls or texts from Sunday, the day before she was found.”

“GPS history?” Jay asked.

“The lab guys are still working on it. Apparently, her phone had absorbed some of her blood and it did a number on her phone…” Sarah read from the report in her hand.

“However, she has an Instagram video feed from a bar, it looks like she was out drink with a couple of ‘_work-buddies_’ as she put it.” Upton pointed at her monitor.

“Unfortunately, neither her video nor her pictures tag the bar they were at.” Burgess scrolled through the pictures taken at the bar.

“Geo-tagging?” Jay offered the most logical question.

“Once we have the GPS data from her phone, we’ll know more.” Sarah answered and sat back down to her desk.

“Okay…” Voight held a small pause “Where are we with the car?”

“We have identified most of the places the Honda has been seen at.” Antonio pointed at the board behind him. It was full of pictures taken of the Honda, next to them the address it was recorded at.

“We’re putting together a map to see if we can find a common place or even a route.” Atwater added.

“Good. Adam, take Watson and question Dolores’ co-workers who were at the club with her. Maybe one of them actually saw something useful.” Voight pointed at Ruzek then at Sarah.

“And they’ll be able to tell us the place’s name!” Kim smiled, realizing what a lead it might drop into their laps.

Sarah gathered her coat and followed Adam down the stairs. Before they reached Adam’s car, both of their phones’ buzzed with the address for the coffee shop and the employees’ home addresses in case they were not at work.

“Efficient.” Sarah smiled as they got into the car. Traffic was a bit lighter by the time they rolled out from the district’s parking lot, the horrible rush hour traffic gone from the streets.

“How’s your firefighter, Watson?” Adam asked, trying to strike up a conversation to kill the time. He also hated driving in silence when somebody was sitting next to him.

“He’s recovering well, physically… mentally? I think he’s about to do something very stupid or crazy, or both.” she smiled, looking at the street signs they were passing by.

“Hey, we all hate being on the sidelines. I’d imagine it’s the same with firefighters. And Severide is one of the best the city has ever had… so of course he’s going crazy sitting at home.”

“I know, hell, I’d have found a way to work by now.” she grinned.

“Most important thing Watson, is for him to have support. Somebody to lean on.”

“Oh trust me Adam, besides me, he had a whole firehouse to lean on…”

“Done deal then. He’ll be back on his feet in no time.” Adam smiled as he parked in front of the Starbucks Dolly had worked at.

“That’s what got him into trouble in the first place.” Sarah smiled, shaking her head lightly. They walked into the shop and walked straight ahead of the line. Adam pulled out his badge, putting it onto the counter.

“Please, tell your manager to come out. We’d like to talk to them.” the twenty something blonde girl just nodded and stepped aside to push a button under the counter that connected to the manager’s office.

“Yo, what the fuck??” came an angry voice from the line of people who were waiting to place their orders.

“Just chill dude.” Adam answered without even looking at the source of the complaint.

“Get the fuck back to the end of the line, no special cases.” the dude stepped out of the line, pointing at the back. He was a middle aged white guy, all fidgety. He looked like he was looking for his next fix, which in his case was probably not his first cup of coffee.

“You really need to chill…” Sarah stepped out from Adam’s shadow, showing her badge.

“I don’t give a rat’s ass if you are pigs, the line is there for a reason, no cutting!” he started walking towards Watson. She looked around, all eyes in that coffee shop were focused on them.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down and please step back.”

Sarah didn’t move even though they guy was still moving towards her.

“Or what bitch? You gonna shoot me in front of all these people?” he smirked and raised his left hand in an effort to slap Sarah. But Watson was quicker, she reached up and grabbed his hand mid-air, then effortlessly turned him around, twisting his hand behind his back.

“If you want to spend the rest of your day in a holding cell for attacking two police officers, by all means, continue your behavior.” she leaned in so only he could hear her “It’s a really scary place… without coffee.” the guy’s eyes looked like they were about to pop right out of his head. She let him go and he didn’t even turn around, he just took off running.

“Man, what did you say to him, Watson?” Adam grinned as he pulled her to the side when he noticed the manager coming.

“That there was no coffee in holding.”

“That’s just brutal…” he laughed then put on his game face when the manager reached them.

“How can I help?” the usual first question. That particular coffee shop’s manager barely seemed older than Sarah. He was in his Starbucks uniform, his nametag read R. Winski.

“Well, Mr. Winski, we are looking to speak to two of your employees.” Ruzek pulled the names from his phone “Bradley Collins and Nicole Thomas.”

“Brad and Nic are working an outdoor event at Humboldt Park today. We are trying to promote the mobile truck in city parks.” he held a small pause “But what is this about?”

“We’ll get to that in a moment.” Sarah stepped in, taking over the conversation “When did you last see Dolores Sanchez?”

“Dolly?” the guy looked genuinely surprised at the change of topic, like his brain didn’t follow the connection “I got a text from her on Sunday that she was coming down with something and she’d need to skip a couple of shifts. She said she’d text again when she was feeling better.”

A red light switched on in Sarah’s brain as she remembered the gap in Dolly’s call history.

“By any chance, do you still have that text?”

“Yeah, sure.” the manager pulled out his phone from his pocket and scrolled through the messages until he got the one he was looking for. He showed it to Watson and Ruzek.

_Sry 4 the short notice, feeling a bit **▽**,_

_I’d rather stay home the next couple of days._

_Will text again when I’m better! Thx Dolly_

“The text came from an unknown number, I just assumed she had a new phone or something.”

“Thanks man.” Adam took a picture of the text with his phone.

“So, do you know when she is coming back?” the guy was not ready for the answer that would follow.

“Oh, I’m sorry to say man…” Adam put a hand on Winski’s shoulder “She is not going to come back at all.”

“What, why?”

“She was murdered.”

“Oh my God.” Winski looked like he was either about to vomit or pass out. Neither happened.

“Did Brad and Nic…” he leaned in close, lowering his voice to a whisper “kill her?”

“No, we don’t think so, Mr. Winski.” Sarah said “Thanks for your help.” with that she and Ruzek walked out of the coffee shop and set back into his car.

“How can you send an anonymous text message? I can’t wrap my head around that one…”

“Well Adam, there’s this thing called the Internet and there are a lot of things you can do on it.”

“Very funny, Watson.” Adam smirked, starting his car “Get me the address for that coffee truck so we can finally get ourselves some leads on this case.”

A good 20 minutes later Sarah and Adam were walking up to the Starbucks mobile truck that was parked in the middle of Humboldt Park.

“Bold choice.” Watson looked around, this part of the city was not exactly the safest, not even in broad daylight.

Everybody loves coffee, Watson. It’s the universal language of truce in the 21st century.” Adam grinned then stepped to the truck.

“What can I get you?” the girl didn’t even bother to look at him.

“Information.” that answer made her look at Ruzek, then she noticed Sarah too.

“Hey, you’re that cop neighbor of Dolly.” Nic smiled “If you see her, tell her to haul her ass to work because this whole truck gig was her idea and now I’m stuck with it and Brad.”

“Can you and Brad take a break? We need to talk to you guys.” Sarah stepped up to the window.

“We’re due for a smoke break anyway.” came Brad’s voice from the back of the truck.

Brad and Nic closed the truck, then stepped out through the back door. Sarah and Ruzek walked up to them.

“So, what’s this about?” Brad was the first to light his cigarette, eagerly breathing in deeply the deadly smoke.

“It’s about Dolly…” Sarah started, trying to find the right words.

“Dolly was murdered.” Adam finished instead of her, not looking for delicate ways to break the news.

“Oh. My. God.” Nic was about to faint and Brad almost choked on the smoke inhaled from the cigarette.

“We need to know the name of the club you guys went to on Saturday.” Sarah pulled out a notepad and a pen from her coat.

“It was near the river, damn I was so hammered that night I can barely remember…” Brad scratched his head.

“It was The Hideout. It’s over the tracks by the river, West Wabansia Avenue, I can’t remember the exact house number.” Nic offered the solution.

“We’ll handle that.” Adam nodded.

“Can you walk us through that night? What were you doing there?” Sarah was eager to learn as much as they could. These two young people were their only lead so far. Nic and Brad walked them through that night. They were out for a regular night of partying after a bad shift, but half the night Dolly was dancing and flirting with others, so around 9pm, Nic and Brad decided to head over to another place and Dolly stayed. The last thing they remembered about Dolly was her talking to a 30 max 40 something man and she was all over him even though – as Nic put it – he wasn’t all that handsome.

“Can you describe that guy? Maybe sit down with one of our sketch artists?” Ruzek asked.

“I only remember thinking he was way lower than Dolly’s usual standard, but nothing else. Although he did stood out from the crowd with being older.” Brad shook his head as he put out his cigarette by dropping it and stepping on it.

“I was angry that we came out with her to have fun together and she ignored us half the night so no, sorry, I don’t remember the guy’s face.” Nic shrugged.

“Well, thank you guys for your help. If you remember anything else, don’t hesitate to call.” Sarah smiled then handed both of them her card.

They walked back to Ruzek’s car, feeling half defeated and half victorious. They had the name of the bar the victim had been last seen at, but they were no closer to their serial killer.

“I feel like we took two steps forward and one step back.” Sarah shook her head going through her notes.

“It’s a start, Watson.” Ruzek said as he kept his concentration on the road. They headed back to the district to report their finding to Voight.

_to be continued_


	7. The Changes in the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be picking up some of the actual storylines from that timeline of the shows, so there'll be some familiar events going down in not just this, but in the upcoming chapters. Timeline is early season 6 for Chicago PD and early season 7 for Chicago Fire.  
This one is a bit longer than the usual, but please, enjoy!

It was a nice, warm and sunny Saturday morning and Sarah could finally sleep in… or so she thought. The alarm on his phone went off at 8am sharp. She peaked at the clock on her nightstand and yawned.

“The hell are we doing up at 8am on a Saturday, Kelly? I know you are not back to fixing boats yet…” she talked sleepily as she turned around and saw him getting out of bed, putting on a shirt and shorts. He leaned back into bed, giving her a small kiss.

“It’s party day.” he smiled.

“What now?” she felt like she was still half asleep and maybe her brain was not processing his words.

“Our late 4th of July party.” he was grinning excitedly from ear to ear like a little kid.

“What did you do while I was working?” Sarah sat up in her bed.

“Nothing.” he kept smiling and he walked out of her room.

“That’s not what your smile says!” Sarah shouted after him while she got dressed. She walked out to the kitchen only to find him brewing coffee and putting together some breakfast.

“I was really looking forward to some alone time this weekend…” she sighed as she sat down, picking up the mug of coffee Kelly handed to her. He served her two slices of toast and pulled her favourite strawberry jam from the fridge.

“Our morning is pretty free for whatever you had in mind.” he winked and watched her spread the jam on her toast and take the first bite.

“You woke me up from my beauty sleep, I’m too tired for whatever you had in mind.” she shook her head slowly. He downed his coffee then walked up behind her, hugging her and resting his head on her right shoulder.

“How do you know what I had in mind?” his voice was deep and his warm breath made her shiver.

“I’m pretty sure it was some form of physical exercise.” she smiled as he planted a quick kiss on her neck.

“Hey, exercise is good for your health…” he said grinning, while he kept showering her neck with small kisses.

“An apple a day is also good for your health and I don’t see you eating apples every day.” she smiled as she turned around on her chair “How’s your shoulder?”

“Never better, I’m going back to work next Wednesday. Some light exercise wouldn’t hurt.”

Sarah stood up, wrapping her arms around his neck, her face inches from his.

“I don’t remember us doing it light, like, not once.” she grinned and kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her body flush against his. She let one of her hands roam over the fabric of his CFD shirt, enjoying the hard muscle ripple underneath, while his hands wandered down to her backside.

“So…” he started as they came up for air “, about this exercise…”

“Why are you still talking?” she grinned, grabbing the back of his neck and pulling his lips back to hers.

He picked her up effortlessly and she locked her beet around his waist, pulling him even closer and he let out a small groan. She immediately pulled back and was searching his eyes for an answer.

“You okay? Was that your shoulder?”

“That was most definitely not my shoulder.” he grinned and with a contented sight she was back to kissing him as he carried her into the master bedroom. He put her down, but their lips remained locked. He took Sarah’s hand and backed her into the nearest wall, pinning her wrist loosely above her head.

“I’ve got some cuffs if that’s what you had in mind.” she winked and he had his face only a breath away from hers. It was his turn to let his other hand roam her body, outlining her curves and she quivered at the contact.

“Not exactly, but I like the way you think.” he grinned then moved to place kisses down her neck, his lisp leaving a trail of fire after them, then he let her hands drop to her side and with a quick tug, he moved her to the bed. One of the things Sarah loved about his CFD shirts were the lapels, which were 99% of the time pretty convenient for her. So she pulled him by the lapels down to the bed, right next to her. She was still quicker than him, so she sat onto his lap, arching against him, pressing him down into the bed as she found the headrest for balance. A deep groan escaped his lips.

Their clothes found their way onto the floor so quickly they both barely realized only their underwear was separating them. And while she was quick, he was stronger. He flipped them over in one smooth move, pressing her into the bed as he straddled her. He leaned down to trail kisses across her chest, meanwhile he masterfully got rid of their remaining underwear. He rubbed against her, moving his kisses ever so slowly up her neck until their lips finally met again.

“Are you trying to keep this light?” she teased him, as her fingers wandered his body.

“Doctor’s orders were light exercise…” he smiled and as he moved again, her eyes widened with the sensation putting her body into overdrive, biting down on her lip so hard she almost drew blood. He started moving his body faster and a low moan escaped his lips as well. Her hands tugged at his hair, trying to bring him even closer to her, which seemed like an impossible feat.

“God you feel so good…” Kelly whispered in her ear as he picked and even faster rhythm, leaving her practically breathless.

“I thought… you were… supposed to…” Sarah bit back a scream that was threatening to escape “… keep it light… oh God…” waves of ecstasy washed over her as she locked her feet around his waist, arching her back away from the bed.

“This is light.” was all he could get out between two moans. She decided to use her newfound strength to her advantage and made him roll around so that she was on top of him, again.

“You know…” she said, slowly grinding against him “you might have to keep it light, but I don’t.”

She winked and leaned down to kiss him, then she slowly rolled her hips again, squeezing in around him, thoroughly enjoying the moan it elicited. He sat up, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her as close as possible to him. Bringing their lips together for a passionate kiss, she started moving her hips at an impossibly fast rhythm and she scratched at his back as the pleasure started rolling through her again. Within minutes, she threw her head back with a cry of relief and he buried his face in her chest, a deep groan escaping his lips.

Sarah collapsed onto the bed next him, letting out a small laugh as Kelly pulled her into a tight embrace, her body still twitching slightly.

“I distinctively remember agreeing to light exercise.” he teased as she snuggled up to him.

“I’d say it was quite light comparing to our usual…” she smiled as she listened to the rhythmic thump of his heart settle back into its normal rhythm. He just laughed, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

“Do we really have to get out of this bed today?” she sighed.

“Unless you are ready for our friends from 51 and Intelligence to get to know this side of you, I’d say yes, definitely.”

She looked up at him, absolutely stunned.

“You invited Voight and the others?”

“Yeah, why not? It’s family and friends, aren’t they included?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s just… I have to get ready.” she said, jumping out of the bed, grabbing clean clothes from her dresser.

“I’m going to take a shower…” she started towards the bathroom connected to the bedroom.

“Great idea!” he grinned as he got out of bed too.

“You can use the guest bedroom.” she nodded then closed the door behind her and he slumped back into bed.

***

A few hours later Sarah’s apartment was ready to host the party of the year – even if it was a few days later than the actual holiday –, waiting for almost 20 people to attend. Sarah was putting the final touched on the decoration on the roof deck when Kelly approached her.

“So, everything’s ready… can we, uhm, talk?” he sat down onto a bench as she paced around, double-checking everything.

“Sure, what about?” she didn’t even stop to look at him.

“What you are so freaked out about?”

“What are you talking about?” her voice went up a couple of notches, but she finally looked at him.

“Ever since I told you Intelligence was also invited, you’ve been freaking out, triple-checking everything…”

She let out a long sigh and sat down next to him.

“Look… you might be able to call them friends, but at the moment, they are just my co-workers, hell, this whole case is a big whopping job interview for me. So, excuse me for being a bit nervous around them when off work.”

“Wow.” he look at her, stunned at her reaction.

“What?” she asked, trying her best not to shrink away under the gaze of his blue eyes that she felt were staring right into her soul.

“Nothing…” he smirked “You’re just cute when you’re nervous, going all OCD on stuff.”

She playfully hit his right shoulder as he grinned at her.

“You think this is OCD for me?” she grinned, looking around the deck “Haven’t you seen me working a case?”

“I’m not going to walk into that trap.” he laughed and pulled her in for a quick kiss.

Soon the roof deck and her apartment was fully of member of Firehouse 51 and the Intelligence Unit and the sweet smell of grilled meat and vegetables lingered in the air. Sarah was making her rounds, getting a refill on her peach ice tea when she noticed Gabby standing only a couple of feet away from her at the corner of the deck, answering her phone.

“Chief Hatcher?” she sounded surprised and Watson had no idea who Hatcher was, so she decided to linger around a little longer. You could call it snooping, but her detective senses kicked in in such situations and sometimes, she couldn’t help but listen.

“I’m at a party, but what can I do for you, Chief?” Gabby’s voice sounded tired and Sarah made a mental note of her reactions to whatever Hatcher was saying to her.

“Puerto Rico?” short pause with some nodding.

“I’m flattered, Chief… it’s just, it’s not a good time.”

Further nodding, then Gabby pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I appreciate all this, Chief, I do.” she took a deep breath before continuing “I just got a lot going on right now…”

Followed by some goodbyes, she finally tucked her phone away and Sarah tried her best to make it look like she was busy pouring herself some ice tea then walked back into the crowd. Before she could rejoin Kelly next to the grill, Voight pulled her to the side.

“Nice party, Watson.”

“Technically it was all Severide’s idea…” she smiled looking at Kelly from afar. He was happy. He was back on his feet, arm out of the sling and he was surrounded by his friends and firehouse family. Severide caught her looking at him and winked at her, then his focus was back on the grill again while he talked with Boden and Casey.

“Look Watson, you came to this team at a delicate time and be glad you have not seen the aftermath of Alvin’s death.” Voight continued and Sarah refocused on him.

“It must not have been pretty, though I wasn’t privy to everything back then.”

“Be glad you weren’t…” Voight shook his head slowly “I don’t think you’ve had the luck of meeting Deputy Superintendent Brennan personally yet?”

“I’ve only heard rumors about her, none of them sounded too great. Why?”

“I have a feeling she’ll soon be making the rounds due to this serial killer. She’ll be sure to pay Intelligence a little visit, nag us about why we haven’t closed the cases yet.”

“She’s more than welcome to try and do our work for us…” Watson started but Voight put up a hand to stop her.

“I don’t like her either, Watson, but we have to fall in line. We’ve managed to keep this out of the media so far, but if Brennan gets involved, you know as well that’s out the window.”

“She’s going to hold a press conference, isn’t she?” Watson shook her head slightly.

“That’s what she is best at…” Voight nodded, keeping a few seconds of silence “But hey, let’s not talk any more shop. Let’s enjoy this party!” he smiled, drinking the rest of his beer and moving on.

Sarah walked back to Kelly, hugging him from behind.

“Hey you…” he grinned, pulling her in front of him and giving her a quick kiss.

“How’s everything at the firehouse?” Sarah turned to Casey and Boden while Severide hugged her from behind, keeping one hand on her waist.

“Peachy…” Boden shook his head, forcing on a smile.

“That did not sound too good.” Sarah look at the Chief, waiting for him to elaborate.

“We’ve got a babysitter as I was just explaining it to Severide.” Casey spoke instead.

“We’ve had the _pleasure_ of having Assistant Deputy Commissioner Jerry Gorsch stationed at 51 for the last couple of shifts.” Boden explained as he sipped away his beer.

“It’s never good when someone with _deputy_ in their title keeps showing up.” Sarah agreed, remembering her conversation with Voight just minutes earlier.

“Couldn’t agree more.” Severide added, downing the rest of his beer in one gulp.

The rest of the party flew by rather quickly, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, forgetting their troubles even if for just a few hours.

Sarah was glad to be able to spend the following Sunday in peace, relaxing, not thinking about the upcoming work days. Even though they were on the trail of the serial killer, they were no closer to catching him than when the first victim was found.

***

Monday came pretty soon and Sarah was looking forward to finally making some progress on the cases as the crime lab had promised to have the GPS data ready for that day. Maybe the creep had slipped up somewhere or they could cross-reference it with Samantha’s GPS data. Watson’s mind was racing with thoughts as she pulled into the parking lot of the district, but before she could make it into the building, the rest of the Intelligence unit came pouring out the door.

“We’ve got another one.” was all Jay said then motioned for Watson to sit in next him. She was riding with him at least for that call.

One the other side of town, Matt Casey was having an equally rough day. He and Gabby had a huge fight over the weekend, their words still echoing in his head.

_“You make these big emotional decisions as if my input doesn’t matter.”_

_“I care deeply how you feel, but I can’t be dependent on it or on you.”_

_“Why not, Gabby? What’s wrong with being dependent on someone who loves you with everything he has?”_

He shook his head slowly to get the voices to disappear as he looked around the half empty apartment. Gabby had decided to take up Chief Hatcher’s offer and flied to Puerto Rico as a volunteer paramedic to help with the relief efforts on that morning. Casey couldn’t argue that away and after their fight about having kids, she took the offer without a doubt. He drank the beer he was holding in his hand then smashed the empty beer bottle at the wall, screaming at it, then slumping down onto the couch. He was angry, but he was also incredibly broken and he had no idea if he could ever put himself back together without Gabby. She promised it would be a two week mission and then she would be back, but the look on her face said to him that if there ever came a time for an extension of her time down there, she would take it without asking him. He wasn’t sure when or even if he would ever get her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I would love to hear some feedback if you have the time! :)


	8. Going to War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me a while with all the hassle and craziness that's been going on everywhere, but chapter 8 is finally done! Fingers crossed I'll have more time to write these next days! ^-^

When Watson stepped into the Intelligence unit’s bullpen on a bright and sunny Wednesday morning of mid-July, she was ready to take on the world and finally put an end to their serial killer case. The crime lab got back-logged and the GPS data they had been promised for that Monday only landed in her inbox that Wednesday morning. The body they were called to on Monday turned out to be a domestic violence case where the husband killed his wife and then dumped her body in the trash. Although a horrible crime, but Voight had let the homicide unit take over the case so they could focus on the serial killer still at large. Watson sat down at her desk a little bit before 8am and opened the e-mail from the crime lab, but before she could dive into it, her phone pinged with a text from Kelly

_I’m on shift today, how about_

_we catch breakfast tmrw morning?_

She smiled at his text and sent back a _Sounds great!,_ then refocused on work, diving into the GPS data, trying to figure out where their victim had been.

***

Severide was about to send off another message when the bell rang out

“Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Battalion 25…”

“Sounds serious!” he heard Casey’s voice in the hallway as they rushed to their trucks. They arrived at the scene within minutes, along with several other engine, truck and squad companies. A fire was raging on one of the upper floors of a 25-storey apartment building complex. As they got out of their trucks, Chief Boden stepped in front of them.

“51, get me a water supply from the standpipe. Truck 81, Squad 3, I need search teams! Engine 37, get the hoses into the North stairwell. Ambulance 61, set up triage.” he held a small pause, looking over his men “Get ready, people. We are going to war!”

The fire was actively raging by the time they got there, but still a lot of people were coming out of the building, rushing down the stairs and out into the street. All but one of the elevators came down to the ground floor. While most of the firefighters were trying to escort people down the stairs, leading them out into safety, Mouch was trying to work on bringing down the stuck elevator. When everything he tried failed, he turned to Otis, their elevator magician. It was stuck just below the fire floor, but when Otis came down from his last round he noticed they were missing a mom and her baby who were walking down with him originally.

“A mother carrying her baby was coming down with us.” Otis explained to Boden, who motioned for Otis to fix the elevator in the meanwhile. It took a few minutes, but he finally got it moving down again. However, they were not ready for the view that awaited them once it finally reached the ground floor. When the elevator’s doors opened, smoke billowed out and once it cleared, two charred bodies became visible.

“She must have ducked out somewhere along the way and got into the elevator…”

“Except it didn’t bring them down straight away.” Boden was trying his best not to look into the elevator.

“No, it must have went up first and opened up on the fire floor before coming down.” Otis nodded, barely able to keep it together.

***

Sarah was almost done with her crime lab report, noting down all the necessary information when Halstead jumped up from his desk.

“Oh my God.” he started gathering his stuff and Watson stood up to see what the hell happened.

“What is it, Jay?” she voiced her concern.

“There’s a fire at my dad’s apartment building… I… I gotta go.” he started walking down the stairs and Sarah grabbed her stuff from her desk.

“I’m coming with you.” and ran after him. The drive to the scene didn’t take a long time and when Halstead jumped out of his car he took a look around to see if his dad was amongst the people in triage and when he didn’t see him he ran straight into the lobby. Sarah was right behind him, trying to keep up with him. Chief Boden stepped in front of Jay before he could make it to the stairs.

“Woah, I can’t let you up Halstead, you know that!” Boden’s voice rang out, the warning in his tone clear as day.

“Chief, my dad, he lives on the 23rd…”

“We’ve cleared that floor Halstead, nobody is up there. Are you sure he didn’T come down already? Or maybe he wasn’t home?”

“No, I haven’t seen him outside and I can’t reach him… he uhm, he has a friend up on the 25th. The guy is in a wheelchair, I’m pretty sure my dad was stubborn enough to get up to him.”

“So stubbornness runs in the family, huh?” Boden shook his head slowly and instructed Casey to get up to the 25th floor as Jay stepped aside to call his brother. Sarah turned to Boden.

“Is Kelly still up there?”

“Yes, the Lieutenant is up on 20…”

“Twenty?!” she interrupted Boden, remembering the news coverage over the radio during their car ride to the scene. The fire was the worst on the 20th floor and was slowly crawling its way up to the higher floors.

“He’s a great firefighter, he knows how to take care of himself, Detective.” Boden put a hand on her shoulder “Besides, they’re on their final sweep. How about you and Halstead make yourselves useful out there and help with the onlookers outside. I’ll send the Lieutenant out to you once he’s down.”

Watson just nodded, she didn’t feel strong enough to argue, so she nudged Jay towards the door and they started to handle the gathering crowd, trying to get back everyone to a safe distance. They just managed to get everybody back when a woman let out a piercing scream pointing up at the high-rise. Sarah turned to look at what the woman was pointing and she had to bite back a scream as well. A firefighter crawled out a window with a kid secured to him and judging from the flames it was the 20th floor. It was too high up, so she had no idea who was that crazy to go out the window 20 floors in the air. Soon a rain of glass hit the sidewalk as the firefighter shattered a window on a lower floor and climbed in with the kid. Sarah took a few steps ahead, trying to get closer to a firefighter to hear something from their radios. One lone firefighter was standing next to Engine 51 monitoring the lines running from the nearby standpipe, but before she could ask him who was up there his radio crackled.

“I’m bringing him down, Chief.” his voice was unmistakable for Watson and she was pretty sure her heart skipped a beat as her mind slowly realized it was Severide hanging out in the air with a kid clinging to him, 20 freaking floors in the air. But before Boden could answer him, another voice boomed over the radio.

“Chief, we’re coming down with two rescues from 25, one of them is Pat Halstead.”

“Good copy, Captain.”

Watson turned back and stepped to Halstead to give him the good news.

“Jay, they’re bringing down your dad.” Sarah spoke “He was up on 25 and they are bringing somebody else with him as well.”

Halstead let out a sigh he didn’t even realized had been holding in and pulled out his phone to call his brother again. Sarah walked back to the trucks, staring through the doors into the lobby, waiting for a little kid and his hero to appear. She was anxious to see him. Within a few minutes a little kid ran out the doors straight to the paramedics so they could check him out and soon after him she saw her Lieutenant. He took off his mask and helmet as he walked out, ready to swap out his oxygen bottle and get back if necessary. It seemed like he didn’t know she was there, he was staring at the ground, walking out. Without saying a word she ran up to him and hugged him. It took him a few seconds before he realized who was hugging him.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” he let himself smile as she let go of him and they walked back to the squad truck.

“Halstead’s dad lives here and his dad went up to the 25th to help his friend down but they both got stuck there.”

“You just wanted to see me and couldn’t wait until tomorrow morning, huh?” he grinned and Sarah couldn’t help but smile as well.

“I may have offered to come with him.” she smiled and kissed him. He reeked of smoke but she didn’t care. He leaned down to kiss her again when his radio crackled.

“Mayday. Mayday.” Herrmann’s voice boomed “Assistance on twenty.”

“Who is still up there?” Watson asked, looking worried.

“Herrmann and Stella.” Severide said about to go and swap out his air bottle to run back in but Boden stepped in front of him.

“Joe and Casey went back in. Nobody else is going back.”

Severide nodded, though he was itching to get back in, one of them were down and the minutes until they would have confirmation were excruciating, he walked over to their ambo. Minutes later Joe, Casey and Herrmann were carrying Stella to Ambo 61. They put her onto the gurney and Brett and Foster started working on her.

“I’ve got a pulse, but she’s not breathing.” Brett examined Stella “Bag her.”

Foster pulled out the necessary equipment from the ambo and started bagging Stella.

“Her air… it just… just dropped.” Herrmann tried to explain what happened.

“Start bagging her, please.” Foster handed over the bag to Herrmann while Casey opened Stella’s gear.

“Cut her shirt so I can get the cardiac leads on her.” Foster barked the next order as she and Brett pulled out the necessary equipment from their bags and the ambo. After Casey cut away her shirt, Foster put on the cardiac leads while Brett intubated Stella. Herrmann reattached the bag to the intubation tube and kept pumping the air.

“Tube’s in.” Brett announced after listening to breath sounds on both sides “Let’s hang the Cyanokit on the way to Med.”

“All right guys, let’s get her on the rig.” Foster nodded and the firefighters helped them put Stella into the ambo. When Stella was in the ambo, Severide walked back to Watson, who was still standing next to the Squad truck.

“How’s she?” Watson looked at the disappearing ambulance over Kelly’s shoulder.

“She was in pretty bad shape, she ran out of air and passed out. That’s not exactly something you can get out of easily.” Severide shook his head, hugging Watson to him. She relished in his closeness and his warmth, but she knew she had to get back to Intelligence soon.

“You get anywhere with your investigation?” Kelly asked as he let go of her.

“I was going through the latest GPS data, I want to cross-reference it with Samantha’s to see if we can find some common place, but I haven’t finished it.” she explained as Kelly walked her back to Jay’s car.

“Then get back to work and find that son of a bitch.” Kelly smiled and gave her one last kiss before walking back to the rest of the firefighters.

“Could you drop me back at the precinct before you go and visit your dad at Med?” Sarah turned to Jay who was sitting in his car already, he just nodded and she hopped in.

Sarah minutes later climbed out of Jay’s SUV at the precinct.

“If you get the chance, can you check on Stella Kidd as well? I’m sure 51 would appreciate an update before they can get out of their scene.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Jay nodded and pulled away, going straight to Chicago Med. Little did he know how critical the next few hours would be not just for him but for the firefighters of Firehouse 51 as well.

_to be continued_


	9. Chasing Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #StayHomeandRead or in my case, write ;) enjoy the newest chapter of Scarlet Chicago. And I'd love to hear from you guys! Keep safe! :)

Sarah went straight back to combing through the GPS data of the latest victim after Halstead had dropped her off at the 21st. The next two hours flew by as she tried to make sense of the data mass.

“Where are you with that GPS data, Watson?” Voight walked out of his office and stopped by Sarah’s desk. Before she could answer, Halstead walked up the stairs and all eyes were trained on him.

“How’s your dad, Jay?” Upton voiced her concern.

“They are keeping him for observation, Will should call if anything happens.” Jay said putting his gun into a drawer in his desk. Sarah turned to ask, but Jay continued.

“Stella Kidd is in a pretty bad shape, she has a hemorrhage in her right lung, Rhodes is doing her surgery.”

“Oh God…” Sarah shook her head slowly. She flipped to the next page of GPS data in front of her when she noticed one line out of place.

“Guys, what day was the 1st?” Sarah asked.

“Sunday.” Kim answered.

“What do you have, Watson?” Voight looked at her, a sense of urgency in his voice.

“There is one line of data on Dolly’s phone from Sunday…”

“I thought you said no calls or texts from that day.” Jay’s interest piqued.

“But her phone connected to a cell tower for 3 minutes on the 1st. Enough for a geo-tag, not enough time for calls or texts.” Sarah explained as she typed in the coordinates into Google maps.

“Could be where our killer was hiding her?” Kim asked the obvious question.

“That would be my guess as well.” Adam nodded and stepped to their timeline board “Our perp abducts these girls Saturday night when they are out partying, then he tortures and rapes them on Sunday, kills them early Monday morning, dumps them before morning rush hour and then disappears.”

“Got the location.” Sarah announced and everybody focused on her “Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Cook County, just west of Chicago.”

“Damn…” Adam shook his head.

“What? A cemetery is the smart place for the kinds of brutality our perp is doing.” Sarah looked at Ruzek, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s not that,” Atwater spoke instead “Forest Home is on the top 10 most haunted places in Illinois.”

“If you believe in such things.” Upton scoffed.

“Executed activists from 1886, victims of 1870 & 1880s smallpox outbreak or the Iroquois Theater fire of 1903 are all buried there.”

“That you for the history lesson, Adam.” Voight shook his head slowly “Can the GPS data pinpoint exact location within the cemetery?”

Sarah clicked and typed before arriving at the sad answer.

“It points towards the Western part of the cemetery, over the river, but we can’t get any more specific than that.”

“Pretty big ground to cover.” Voight sighed “Okay, we’re going to that cemetery, Hailey, call in for the K9 unit and get us some clothes from the victims for the dogs to sniff.”

“Let’s get going. It’s going to be a long day and I don’t want to be there when the sun goes down.” Ruzek nodded, grabbing his gun and car keys.

***

The cemetery was truly enormous and had some majestic headstones and sculptures. It was empty besides all the police officers and the K9 dogs trying to sniff out where the victims could have been held. It was hour 3 of the search with not much luck.

“Yesterday’s rain and the river’s closeness doesn’t help.” one of the K9 officers explained to Watson and Halstead.

“Safe to say the killer knew how to choose an almost untraceable place.”

“They key word is almost, Jay.” Sarah smiled “Nobody is perfect, he made a mistake with Dolly’s phone and we are one step closer.”

“Out here chasing ghosts, sure…” Jay complained.

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” Voight added from behind them “We work with what we have to uncover new evidence, then we finally nail this son of a bitch.”

Before they could continue their conversation, one of the dogs caught a scent and led his handler to a mausoleum. Halstead pulled gloves and had his gun in one hand and the other on the door. Watson pointed her gun straight ahead and went right in as Jay opened the door. She only took two steps inside before backing out. The place reeked of dried blood.

“Get CSU in there. Get me DNA matches!” Voight barked his orders. Sarah walked around the building.

“The path is big enough for the perp to come in with the Honda, but the rain got rid of all the tire tracks if there were any.” she pointed at the mud they were all walking around in.

“We can check if the cemetery has any cameras inside…”

“I highly doubt that.” Sarah interrupted Halstead.

“And if they don’t, there should be cameras at the gates. We should be able to get a clearer picture of the Honda and with some luck, get a glimpse of our perp.” Jay finished.

“Get the footage.” Voight pointed at Ruzek, who only nodded and started walking towards the administration building, Burgess following him. Sarah watched as the CSU techs collected anything and everything they could find and photographed the building inside and out. Soon, it was time to head back to the precinct and wait for the results from the crime lab. There was nothing they could do until they had the confirmation on the blood samples. The cemetery had promised to hand over their footage by the end of the day, so they were at a standstill, again. Watson stepped to the side and dialed Kelly’s number.

“Hey.” he answered after a couple of rings.

“Hey you. How’s everyone holding up?” Sarah asked as she walked back towards her car.

“We just got back from the scene, everybody is pretty fidgety with no news on Stella.” she heard him close a door and she supposed he settled into his quarters.

“Last I heard she was headed for a big surgery, she had a bleed in her right lung. Rhodes is her doc, she should be okay. I’m sure Boden could force an answer out of him.”

“Thanks, I’ll get him to try.” a small pause “You got any closer to closing your case?”

“Had some promising leads…” she sighed as she got into her car “Now it’s back to waiting for results from the crime lab. I’m just happy to get out of this cemetery.”

“Cemetery” worry seeped through his voice.

“I can’t really talk about it, but I’m a step closer to catching him.” she said goodbye and started back for the precinct.

***

The footage from the cemetery didn’t arrive until the next morning, so Watson got an early start reviewing the video. She was alone in the bullpen, one of the perks of coming in early. A big cappuccino steamed on her desk as she continued watching the boring show of cars coming and going from the cemetery.

Jay arrived next a little after 7.30am, coffee steaming in his hand as well.

“We’ve got an early bird in you, huh Watson?” he teased as he pulled up a chair and sat down next to Sarah.

“We have 6 days of footage to comb through. I thought I’d get us a head start. Besides, you’re early too.”

“Found anything?”

“There are two gates for visitors to come and go through, but there’s a third gate on the property, a service entrance.”

“I’d assume they have cameras pointed at that gate as well?” his interest piqued.

“And they do. Which means 6 days of footage from 3 points of view. Care to join the amazing cemetery marathon?”

Jay looked at the time stamp on her monitor - 23/06/2018.

“Send me the footage from Dolly’s timeline, you finish up Samantha’s.” he nodded and rolled back to his desk.

As the minutes passed by and the clock passed 8am, the bullpen slowly filled with the rest of the Intelligence team, Voight demanding an update.

“I have the Honda coming through the service entrance gate on 23rd June, that’s Saturday night.” Watson pulled up the screenshot “The plates match the Honda from outside the club. Sadly, the camera is too high up so we can’t see the perp’s face.”

“But we have confirmation that he was there. That’s a good start!” Voight nodded.

“He arrived Saturday night a little after 11pm, but I haven’t seen him leave on Sunday’s video. I’m just getting started with Monday.” Watson said, refocusing on her screen.

“I went ahead and looked at the same time and location for 30th June. I have the Honda coming through the service entrance as well at 11:15pm, same camera angle, so no clear view on the target.” Jay added.

“Get me that car leaving the cemetery.” Voight looked at Jay then at Sarah “And get me footage from nearby surveillance cameras, maybe one of them caught a clear shot of his face.”

“Sarge,” Kim started as she opened her newest e-mail “I’ve got the crime lab’s report on the DNA samples.”

“Let’s hear them.” Voight stepped closer.

“2 samples matched to Dolores and Samantha.” Kim read from the report.

“I’m sensing a but coming…” Ruzek stood up from his desk and walked over to Kim’s.

“But there was a 3rd blood sample. No match in the system, but according to their analysis, it’s from a woman.”

“We have another victim out there who we haven’t found yet?” Sarah turned around in her chair, absolutely shocked.

“Looks like it.” Kim nodded.

“Get the extra footage from last weekend as well from Forest Home.” Voight pointed at Ruzek.

“It’s safe to assume he keeps to his routine. So he would have abducted another girl last Saturday night and dumped her on Monday morning.” Watson stood up and started pacing between the desks “Today’s Thursday… it’s hard to believe a body stays hidden for days in such a busy city.”

“The previous victim’s weren’t’ exactly hidden either, behind garages in the trash.” Atwater looked at the boards where they had their evidence lined up.

Before they could contemplate any further, Voight’s phone started ringing in his office. He walked back, answered it, nodded a couple of times, and then walked back out to the team.

“So… we are getting a visitor.” Voight started and held a small pause “Deputy Super-Intendent Brennan wants to check in on us and our little investigation.”

_to be continued_


	10. What's next?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since the last chapter, so enjoy the following chapter - maybe providing a bit of a safe haven from the craziness of the world.  
Feel free to leave kudos or a comment :) #StaySafe

Sarah shook her head slowly as she walked back to her desk after hearing the news about their visitor.

“She’s coming to tell us what to do.” Hailey said walking back to her desk too “To how to do our job.”

“Good thing we don’t listen too well.” Halstead smiled, heading into their breakroom to get some coffee.

“Is she really that horrible?” Sarah asked in a low whisper as she pulled Kim aside.

“Generally speaking, yes. But relax, Voight knows how to play her game. And who do we follow?”

“Voight.” Watson nodded.

“Just keep that in mind.” Kim smiled, patting Sarah on the shoulder then she went to join Halstead in the breakroom as well. The coffee was not the best at the precinct, but it was coffee nonetheless. And when you need an energy boost at work, you can’t always be picky.

Minutes later Ruzek and Antonio were heading to the parking lot behind the precinct to head back to Forest Home Cemetery. They just got into their cars when a black police SUV pulled into the lot and Deputy Super-Intendent Brennan stepped out from the backseat.

“Ooh I’m glad we drew the short straw with the cemetery.” Adam shook his head as he started driving.

“Things just get worse when politics are involved.” Antonio agreed.

“What do you think, Dawson? What does she want?”

“For us to solve this case as quickly as possible. Women getting abducted, tortured, killed and then dumped looks bad for the city.”

“Oh so she is afraid of less tourists?” Adam scoffed as he was drumming on the steering wheel with his fingers. It was still fairly early in the morning so they got stuck in the rush hour traffic.

“Less tourists coming, less local people going out… means less money being spent each night. She’s not just worried about the image of the city. Chicago has never really been known for being too safe…” Antonio continued.

“She’s worried about the money flow while women are being killed?” Adam shook his head again. Catching killers these days were not just about getting justice for the victims, but restoring the cash-flow of the city.

“Exactly.” Dawson nodded “We just need to make sure she doesn’t reveal something crucial in her next press conference. The perp might not know yet that we discovered his slaughter house.”

“You think her next step is to hold a press conference?” Adam looked at Antonio when they got stuck at a red light.

“You don’t?” Dawson scoffed and Adam just smirked. The rest of the drive went by in silence until they got to the cemetery.

***

Meanwhile back at the 21st, Brennan walked up to the bullpen of the Intelligence unit alone. By the time she reached the last step, Voight was waiting for her.

“I see you have some new addition to your unit, Sergeant.” Brennan look at Watson, who quickly realized she was talking about her. So she stood up, stepped out from behind her desk then extended a hand towards Brennan.

“Detective Sarah Watson.” Brennan shook her hand, looking her up and down.

“Why are you so familiar?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Ma’am.” Sarah looked surprised.

“Your name… I’m sure I’ve come across it somewhere.” Brennan cocked her head to one side, then turned to Voight, a slight smile playing on her lips.

“Let’s go into your office, Sergeant. We’ve got some talking to do.” and with that she started for Voight’s office, Hank following her. Life seemed to stop in the bullpen when the door to Voight’s office closed.

“I cannot wait to hear what shit show we will be thrown into.” Hailey scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“She wants the juicy details for her press conference.” Halstead added.

“It can’t get out that we found his lair in Forest Home. He’ll just pack up and find a new place to do his insanity.” Watson said, sitting on her desk.

“We all know that,” Atwater agreed, dropping hi pen onto a stack of papers “but when this serial killer makes the news… she just wants to get ahead of a city-wide panic and for that, you need more than a ‘we are working on it’.”

“But she knows that by selling out the juicy details to the press, she’s just going to make this killing spree last longer?” Sarah kept her eyes on Voight’s door.

“In her world, that’s a problem for another day.” Halstead explained as he sat down to his desk. Before they could continue talking, the door opened, Brennan storming out in a much less happier mood than when she had entered.

“I want this perp caught yesterday, people.” with that Brennan rushed down the stairs and headed straight for the parking lot.

“You heard her.” Voight said as he came to a stop next to Halstead’s desk.

“That’s all she wanted?” Watson asked.

“And she wanted to know more about you.”

“Me?” Watson asked, hopping down from her desk “What does she want with me?”

“The million dollar question.” Voight shrugged then walked back to his office and sat down at his desk.

***

Friday went by in a blur, Sarah and Kim were gathering and watching CCTV footage from around the cemetery’s service entrance and they spent their day in front of their computers. Voight sent them home when nightfall came. Kelly was off shift until Saturday morning, so Sarah decided to surprise him.

_You home tonight?_

She sent the text from the precinct’s parking lot, sitting in her car.

_Yeah, why?_

The answer came quickly and she typed back just as fast.

_I’m about to finish up, talk to you soon._

After sending off the text she started searching for restaurants with take-outs in the vicinity. 45 minutes later she was walking up to his door, fresh take-out in the bag she was carrying. She stopped at his door and knocked three times. A few seconds later his blue eyes greeted her when he opened the door.

“Hmmmm is that take-out I’m smelling?”

“You’re not even happy to see me?” she laughed as he let her in. She dropped the food on the counter in his kitchen. Sarah turned around to greet him, but Kelly was already standing in front of her.

“Hey there.” he smiled, placing his hands on her hips, pulling her closer to him.

“I’m not letting the food go cold.” she smiled, leaning in to give him a quick kiss, then moved to the cabinet to get some plates.

“This better be some good food then.” he set the plates on the counter and started packing out the food while she took out two beers from the fridge.

“I have a shift tomorrow, so don’t make me drink too many of those.” he winked, pointing at the beers in her hand.

“Oh, these are for me, would you like some too?” she teased as they settled in to eat.

“Very funny.” he laughed, biting into his hamburger “God, this is delicious, so you get a free pass for that.”

“Didn’t know I needed one.” she looked at him between two bites, trying to act surprised without bursting out laughing.

“Well you missed out on this.” he motioned over his body.

“Or maybe I’m just keeping the best for last.” she winked and he almost choked on the bite of food he had in his mouth. A few seconds of silence had passed, both of them finishing up their dinner. She put their empty plates into the sink, then she walked to one of his big windows looking over the city while he washed the plates. He then walked up behind her, hugging her, resting his head on her shoulder. She melted into his embrace.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

“I’m trying my best not to think about the cases we’re working on… we aren’t much closer to catching the son of a bitch and the Super-Intendant might just screw the whole thing up… royally.”

“What do you mean?”

“She’s going to do what she’s so good at… hold a press conference.”

She didn’t have to say anything else, he knew what that meant. One bad choice of words or wrongly disclosed information could sink cases faster than lightning.

“I might be able to take your minds off about it.” he teased, planting a kiss on her neck. She smiled, easing into his embrace even more.

“Not tonight, but I might take you up on that offer later.” she turned around in his arms “It’s not a limited time offer, is it?”

His blue eyes were sparkling in a darker shade than usual.

“I’m going to have to think about that…” she playfully smacked his chest for that answer and he just leaned in to kiss her. The kiss was sweet and passionate, but also short. She rested her forehead against his.

“Can I just stay over?” this time her voice was barely a whisper.

“You have to ask?” he smiled.

“I just don’t feel like spending the night alone in my apartment…”

“You don’t have to explain, Sarah. I’m always happy to have you over.” he smiled, kissing her again.

When they finally settled in for the night, Watson just couldn’t sleep, it wasn’t that big of a deal for her, as only Severide was going to work in the morning. So she pulled out her phone while in bed and she started scrolling through Facebook. An hour had passed so fast she didn’t even notice, and she was ready to put down her phone and get some sleep when she came across an article. It was a local newspaper’s online post, only a couple hours old and they had Super-Intendant Brennan’s picture in front of a stand and microphones. The title read:

** _Serial Killer haunting the streets of Chicago – are we safe?_ **

She nearly dropped her phone onto her face, almost giving herself a black eye. She muttered a few curse words under her breath, careful not to wake Severide up. Watson hesitated to open the article, but her curiosity got the best of her and after reading it, she immediately wished she hadn’t done it.

After that article there were only two options this case could go: the perp would either pack up and leave Chicago as fast as he could, running far away into a different city where he could continue his perversion or… he could escalate, enjoying the spotlight that just had been shone on him.

_to be continued_


	11. The Unexpected Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the next chapter, feel free to leave kudos or comments. I'm always happy to hear to what you think! :)

Watson was too tired to get up when Kelly left for his shift. She only got out of bed after 9am. It was a Saturday, she felt like she had earned one late morning after the past few weeks. By the time she scrambled some breakfast together and she turned on the TV to watch the news, their perp already had a nickname.

** _The Chicago Strangler terrorizing our streets_ **

The media was having a field day with all the information Brennan had leaked out through her press release. They had already coined the nickname for him, which wasn’t too create if she wanted to be honest, but they wanted something catchy, something to make a hashtag out of. #_ChicagoStrangler_ – that would go trending pretty soon.

After finishing her breakfast, she cleaned up, got dressed and headed home. She dropped a message to Kelly to come over after his shift so he could pick up his keys. All he sent back in reply was a winking smiley and she just chuckled at it. She spent the rest of the day trying to relax, to ease her mind so that on Monday she could start bright and early and with full vigilance. She wanted to catch the Strangler before he could drop anymore bodies, but she knew the chances of that were pretty slim… but she needed something to keep her going, to don’t just give up. Technically, they could have asked assistance from the FBI as crossing state lines would have made this a federal case, but they never made the connection official in any system to the Nevada cases. Voight wanted a change to capture the Strangler in Chicago and then add the cold cases to his rap sheet.

Watson had spent half the night tossing and turning in bed, desperately trying to take her mind off of the case. She woke up at 7am on Sunday morning to a car alarm blaring on the street. She got out of bed groggily, took a hot shower then got dressed into a loose fitting shirt and her favourite NCIS shorts she kept as a reminder of her past couple of years. Sarah walked out into the kitchen, put on some coffee to brew and fixed a quick sandwich for breakfast. She wasn’t in the mood to eat a big breakfast, but she knew she shouldn’t go on an empty stomach. So she forced down the sandwich, a cup of coffee and some ice tea then sat down to read the news on her phone. Every outlet was dealing with the Chicago Strangler, calling in all sorts of experts to talk about serial killers. After half an hour she was about ready to toss her phone into a corner being fed up with all the fancy theories they have coined overnight, when her doorbell rang. She walked to the door, looked through the peephole then opened the door.

“Hey you.” she smiled, letting him in. Once the door was closed, he dropped his bag and pushed her up against the door, capturing her lips in a searing kiss.

“I’m glad to see you too.” she smiled when they came up for air.

“It was one of the most boring shifts ever…” his voice was a low whisper, giving her a quick kiss again “and I just couldn’t stop thinking about you.” his hands rested on her hips as she ran her hands over his chest.

“Well… how about you show me how much you missed me?” she smirked, playing with the couple of buttons his CFD shirt had. His eye were turning to a shade of blue she could never resist and his grip on her hips tightened. Severide pulled her to himself, their faces inches from each other.

“Are you challenging me?” a small smile played on his lips, his eyes focused on hers and she felt like he could stare right into her soul if he wanted to.

“Only if you are up for it…” she teased, sliding her hands down his chest to his belt buckle. He groaned as he picked her up effortlessly and carried her into her bedroom. Once he put her down, their clothes quickly found their way onto the floor, leaving them only in their underwear. He pulled her in close, kissing a trail of fire down her neck as he tugged her towards the bed. Before going in for another kiss, he backed her onto the bed, holding her down as he straddled her. A mischievous smile played on his lips before he continued kissing his way across her chest, rubbing against her with only the thin fabric of their underwear separating them.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” Sarah whispered as he caressed his body, her touches light as feather.

“I’d say you are going to enjoy it.” he winked, stripping themselves from the last layer of clothes separating them. Severide’s fingers slid over the inside of her thigh, making her shiver as they slipped upwards. Sarah grabbed his shoulder, clinging to him as he gave her the attention she craved. She moaned against his skin, ready to bite into his shoulder when she remembered his wound, so she showered him in small kisses. Their bodies intertwined as she wrapped her legs around his hips, drawing him closer. She ran her hands over his muscular chest, enjoying the feel of his muscles rippling under her touch.

“If I can’t walk straight after this, that’s going to be your fault.” she teased and he smirked, giving her a passionate kiss. She couldn’t seem to get him close enough, not even when he joined with her, making her gasp. He moved against her and she arched into him, craving even more, she needed all of him. She dug her fingernails into his back, showering his neck with small kisses as pleasure rolled through them. He grabbed the headboard and started thrusting harder and she picked up the pace, meeting his hips with hers, desperately and greedily. Soon her senses started to overwhelm and the pleasure tightened and compressed within her. Within minutes, she cried out loudly as the pressure released. Severide buried his face into her neck, placing small kisses there but he never slowed down and soon he was clutching at her as bliss overwhelmed him too and she pulled his body flush onto hers, holding him close as he rode out his waves of euphoria. He rolled down next to her and she snuggled up to him.

“So… you missed me that much, huh?” she smiled, looking up at him.

“I believe I’ve just demonstrated that, but if you want round two…” he grinned and she just leaned in to kiss him. She was happy and content whenever she was around him, Severide could make her forget whatever case she was working on and just have her switch off her work mind and relax. Before she could answer, her doorbell rang and she had no idea who it could be.

“You expecting someone?” he asked as she rolled out of bed and tried to find her clothes in the mixed pile next to the bed. She quickly pulled on her underwear and shirt as the doorbell rang again.

“Coming!” she yelled as she stumbled out of the bedroom while trying to pull up her shorts.

He wasn’t in that much of a hurry to get dressed, he was still counting on that round two he had offered, as he was pretty sure she wasn’t expecting anybody. The doorbell rang for the 3rd time before Sarah could get to it, but when she finally did and she opened it, she was in for a big surprise.

“Mom?” her jaw dropped.

“Well, aren’t you going to let your own mother in?” the woman smiled. She was in her late fifties, red hear, feature almost identical to Sarah and she had jeans, a shirt and a red light jacket on. Sarah let her mother inside, who just waltzed straight into the living room, pulling her carry-on bag after her. Before Sarah could say anything she heard his footsteps approaching from the bedroom and she hoped with all her might he got dressed.

“So who was it? Aren’t you coming back to bed?” he asked grinning as he stepped into the living room, with only the cover around his waist.

“Oh my God…” Sarah stepped in front of him quickly, pushing him back into the hallway towards the bedroom.

“Who’s this hunk you’ve been hiding, sweetie?” her mom giggled, her southern drawl showing, as Sarah came back, her face flushed.

“He is… he’s my boyfriend, Mom.” Sarah said when she realized that’s who he really was, they haven’t really talked about it, but they have spent pretty much all of their free time together.

“Well, you’ve always had a good eye for guys, ‘cause him? Hmmmm he’s sexy.”

“Mom!” Sarah couldn’t believe this was happening.

“What, honey? It’s true, any woman with eyes can see that.”

Before her mom could continue, Kelly walked back into the living room, this time all dressed up.

“Hey there.” her mom grinned and Sarah just shook her head, stepping in between them.

“Mom, this is Kelly Severide… Kelly, she’s my mom, Claire.”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Watson.” he smiled sheepishly, extending a hand towards her.

“No nonsense young man,” Claire started “it’s safe to assume you’ve been in my daughter’s bed more than once…”

“Mom!” Sarah was about ready to jump out the window just so she didn’t have to witness that.

“So no Mrs. Watson, Claire will be fine.” she grinned and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Oh my God…” Sarah just plopped down onto her couch.

“What? Tell me it’s not true.”

She was about to argue when her mom continued.

“See? You can’t, because it’s true.”

“Are you in law enforcement, Mrs…” at the mom’s angry look he quickly corrected “Claire.”

“God no…” Claire laughed as she walked into the kitchen to pour herself a cup of coffee.

“I’ve started as a lawyer though.” Claire continued “But I’m in real estate at the moment.”

“Careful, she can sell you practically anything and everything, especially things you don’t even need.” Sarah smiled, trying to diffuse the situation. She wasn’t planning on introducing Kelly unless absolutely necessary. Her mom could be viscous if she wanted and had scared off a couple of her previous boyfriends.

“That’s nice.” Kelly smiled, standing in the middle of the living room, awkwardly, not sure if he should sit down next to Sarah or not.

“And what are you up to, Kelly,” Claire asked, walking back to them “Are you a cop as my Sarah?”

“Uhm no…”

“Thank God, it didn’t do us any good that her father was one. It’s enough Sarah is working a dangerous job.”

“Well, Mom, you see… Kelly here is one of the best firefighters in the city.” Sarah smiled, standing up and walked over to Kelly, intertwining their hands.

“Oh great, you actually managed to find someone who has a more dangerous job than you, honey… that’s an accomplishment.” Claire sighed, downing the rest of her coffee in one gulp. But before Sarah could object, her mom picked up her suitcase and started for the door.

“Well, I’ve got to check in at the hotel, but we ought to go and grab some lunch or maybe dinner while I’m here.” and with that she was out the door. Sarah turned to Kelly who was grinning ear to ear.

“What?”

“That wasn’t how I had imagined meeting your mom.” he laughed and she brought her arms around him.

“I wasn’t planning on you meeting her anytime soon. She’s a hurricane, ready to wreck my life again.” she shook her head.

“You haven’t met my dad, he’s a piece of work.” he smiled and pulled her in for a quick kiss.

“So… we were debating round two before all this…” he grinned as he traced circles on her back.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, but my mom kind of killed my vibe.” she sighed and he just planted a kiss on the top of her head.

“So, what do you want to do then?”

“Let’s just get out of here. I need to clear my head and the weather’s actually nice…” she let go of him and started walking towards her bedroom so could get dressed.

“And I heard the zoo in Lincoln Park is a must see and I haven’t seen it yet.” she smiled then disappeared into her bedroom. He just smiled and sat down on the couch to wait for her.

_to be continued_


	12. A Day Off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to take a very different turn as we are almost halfway into the story.

The drive to the zoo took only a bit more than 30 minutes as they had to drop off Severide’s stuff at his place. The drive was relatively silent, Sarah didn’t feel like chit-chatting, she was still pretty angry at her mom for dropping in completely unannounced. When they got out of her car, she walked over to him and intertwined their hands.

“So, we made it official, huh… girlfriend?” Kelly smiled, giving her a small kiss.

“It’s not like we were hiding it before, boyfriend.” she smiled as they walked through the east gate of the Lincoln Park Zoo.

“I still can’t believe this is free.” Sarah look absolutely surprised as they entered.

“That’s the best, but don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways to spend money here.” he winked and they took a right turn after the gift shop which brought them straight to the Birds of Prey exhibit.

“Can I ask something?” Kelly asked as they walked over to the Penguin Cove. She just nodded without looking at him, while she admired the adorable African penguins.

“Did you ever have a Southern accent?”

She had to stifle a laugh.

“I was born in New Orleans, but we moved to New York while I was fairly young.” she smiled “Dad got a really good job offer and Mom being a lawyer, well, she could move quite easily.”

“After hearing your Mom talk, I just had to ask.” he smiled and she leaned in for a kiss.

“Why, you have a thing for that?” she winked, imitating a southern accent before she kissed him.

"Very funny." he smiled.

“Any other awkward questions you want to get out of the way?” she grinned as they continued their way over to the polar bears.

“Not necessarily an awkward one, but… when did you know you want to become a cop?”

“I was around 11, when Dad was leading a task force in Brooklyn, they caught the Brooklyn Strangler.”

“Never heard about him.” Kelly shook his head slowly.

“The guy killed 6 prostitutes around Brooklyn during the summers of 1999 and 2000.”

“That’s when you knew?”

“Yeah, we were kept inside those summers, not allowed to go out and play with other kids, Mom was terrified all summer.” she explained as they stopped for a coffee at the Safari Café “I remember the joy on people’s faces when they announced he was caught. I remember the relief the community felt. That’s when I knew.”

“You were fairly young.” he smiled, trying to imagine the 11 year old Sarah “But it’s fitting if your dad caught the Brooklyn Strangler, you’ll be the one to catch the Chicago Strangler.”

Sarah never looked at it from that point of view until he mentioned it, and she just shook her head smiling.

“So you became a New York city cop?” he smiled.

“I was halfway through the academy when NCIS pulled me, I had the highest scores of my class and the feds were known to poach.”

“Wow, you went federal straight away? I bet you were the youngest NCIS agent to be recruited.”

“Says the man who was the youngest person ever to join Squad at the ripe age of 23.”

He raised an eyebrow at her and she just chuckled.

“What? When I first came here for the arson cases, I kind of looked into you…”

“You did a background check on me?” he tried to act offended.

“I had to know who I would be working together with. I was surprised to see you were booked once.”

“That was a mistake on CPD’s side, I was released fairly quickly and I was told it was not going on my record… so how did you find out?” he asked as they stopped in front of the snow monkeys’ exhibit.

“I have some tricks up my sleeve… that’s how I also know you were married once.” she teased "I was waiting when you were going to mention that."

“Okay…” he laughed “are we listing worst decisions here? Because if we do, I want to hear some of yours.” he smiled and against her will, she ended up blushing a bit.

“At one point in my life, I might have had very red hair like my Mom does.”

“Did you now?” he teased, looking her up and down, trying to imagine her with bright red hair.

“Thankfully I have my dad’s hair color and I grew out of my red phase.” she chuckled and he put an arm around her, keeping her close to him while they continued their walk.

“And what’s the second? It’s only fair if you exposed two of mine…”

“Dating a co-worker…” she admitted, feeling defeated “I originally started working at the New Orleans field office and I ended up dating a fellow agent there.”

“Not a happy end to that story, by the look on your face.”

“No…” flashbacks flooded her mind “In the end, it made my decision to stay at the DC field office very easy.”

“Okay, onto a happier territory…” he planted a kiss on the top of her head “How’s work with the Intelligence unit?”

“I know if I can solve this strangler case, I’ve got my ticket in.” she stopped and turned to face him “But let’s not talk about work, I’ve read you have a sister.”

“Oh so we are diving into the family stuff, huh?” he smiled and after a short kiss, they continued to walk and talk, hands intertwined, looking at the wonders of the zoo.

***

The rest of the day went by pretty fast, Sarah’s mom didn’t call and she wasn’t eager to reach out either. Watson spent the night at Kelly’s and snuck out early in the morning, careful not to wake him up. She left him a little note on the fridge, then headed home to shower and get some clean clothes. She arrived at the 21st just a few minutes after 7:30am, two cups of steaming coffee in her hands. She walked up to Trudy, placing one of the cups in front of her.

“Good morning, Trudy.” she smiled then didn’t wait for an answer, she just waltzed up to the Intelligence unit’s bullpen after Platt buzzed her in.

“She’s good, I’ll give her that.” Trudy whispered to herself, smiling as she took a sip from the steaming coffee.

Watson was the first one to arrive at the office, she didn’t mind, it was a habit she learned from her dad. Always be the first person everywhere: _it’s better to be early than to be late_. She lived by this principle since the age of 10 and it wasn’t a hassle for her, she actually enjoyed the quiet of the empty office. She could get her mind into the game before everybody arrived. Soon the rest of the Intelligence arrived as well, each of them holding a cup of coffee in their hands. That’s how a Monday morning looked like at any district. Not long after 8am, Trudy Platt walked up to the bullpen with a single sheet of paper in her hand.

“We’ve caught another one.” was all she said.

The crime scene was in Humboldt Park, much like the first victim’s scene. It was even located by the same Stores4Rent on North Ridgeway Ave by the train tracks.

“This is the same place we found Samantha Reed.” Watson looked around, taking in their surroundings.

“It is.” Halstead agreed as he walked up to the body “But this time, it’s worse.”

Sarah started walking up to him, hesitantly at first. She was trying to prepare her stomach for the view, but no amount of preparation could have helped her and she almost gagged at the sight.

“You’ll get used to it.” Ruzek squeezed her shoulder and she tried her best to focus. Kim walked back to them after she talked with the medical examiner and the lead CSU technician on scene.

“Besides her obvious injuries” she started, avoiding looking at the body “the ME says her fingerprints were removed, by the looks of it, with some kind of acid.”

“I assume that’s a message for us then.” Halstead scoffed.

“There’s more. CSU found no phone on or near her and well, her face is beaten beyond recognition.”

“He is upping his game.” Sarah shook her head slowly “He’s giving us extra work with identifying her.”

“And every minute we spend trying to identify her is another minute we are not spending chasing him.” Halstead agreed.

“A bit of good news is that a witness saw a white Honda speeding away from around her in the morning. He waited a bit, then walked out her and found the body.” Burgess finished briefing the team.

“So it’s safe to assume this was indeed the Strangler.” Antonio voiced what all of them had been thinking.

“There is a clear mark on her neck, I’d be willing to bet some big bucks that the cause of death was asphyxiation and underneath all the blood, the ME will find the word _slut_ written with black marker.” Ruzek said, taking a step back from the victim.

“Unfortunately, unless we can identify her and retrace her steps, we’re back to square one.” Sarah pinched the bridge of nose, then they walked back to their cars, letting CSU finish up processing the crime scene, desperately hoping for any shred of evidence that would help them identify the new victim as soon as possible.

_to be continued_


	13. Prime Suspect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please enjoy the newest chapter! :)  
I'd love to have some feedback from you guys <3

Hours later the Intelligence unit was adding the newest victim to their evidence board when Halstead voiced all of their concern.

“This is going to be impossible.” he shook his head as he sat down onto the corner of his desk.

“If we don’t have her DNA in the system…” Ruzek agreed.

“So what are we doing to catch the Strangler?” Voight asked, standing in his doorway.

“I checked with Forest Home, no white Honda was picked up on their security footage since we’ve been out t here.” Antonio read from his e-mail from the cemetery.

“So he changed bases.” Halstead added.

“Which is not going to make our jobs easier.” Upton scoffed, dropping the marker she used for the board onto her desk.

“Any other ideas?” Voight asked, not moving from his doorway.

“I might have one.” Watson said, a bit hesitantly as she stood up from her desk “But it might be a bit unconventional.”

“What is it, Watson?”

“I have a friend, who could help us put together a profile for the Strangler without involving the Feds.” Sarah explained.

“What would that be good for?” Ruzek asked, raising an eyebrow.

“A profile could narrow down the suspect pool. Based on the crime scenes and the victims they could pinpoint an age group, personality traits and possible professions for the perp.”

“It’s worth a try.” Voight agreed “But don’t get the Feds involved, Watson. I want to try and solve this inhouse.”

Sarah nodded then walked over to an empty interrogation room to make a call. It was ringing for a while before the answer came.

“You have reached very busy Special Agent Sloane...”

“Hey Sloane” Sarah interrupted, smiling “Do you have a minute for me?”

“Hey Sarah, let’s hear it.”

“I need a favor…”

“What is it about?”

“I need a profile on the serial killer I’m working, but I can’t involve the Feds – except for you.” Sarah was walking up and down the interrogation room while they talked.

“I can’t fly out to Chicago right now, Sarah.”

“You don’t have to. I can send you everything we have online.”

“Okay, how many victims are we talking about?”

“Three confirmed in Illinois so far, a fourth one found just this morning, it’s not yet confirmed but I’m confident it’s the same guy.”

“That’s not much…”

“And two more in Vegas from 2 years ago, but we didn’t make the connection official so we don’t have to go federal.”

“But the FBI has the best profilers…”

“You are all we need, Jack. You are the best I’ve seen so I’m begging you.”

“I’ll see what I can do Sarah, but no promises, okay? You know it as well that profiles are not always a 100% accurate.”

“I know, but it could help us narrow down our suspect pool.” Watson argued.

“You have one?”

“Yeah… almost every guy in the country, capable of violence…”

“Well, that’s not much to go on.” Sarah could hear Jack smile “I’ll do what I can, just send me over whatever you guys have.”

Watson walked back to her desk and sent everything they had on Helen Smith, Samantha Reed and Dolly Sanchez. She also included the crime scene photos of the body they had found that morning.

***

A couple hours later Sarah’s phone started ringing, caller ID read Jack Sloane (NCIS). She stepped into the breakroom and answered the call.

“Hey Jack, Please, tell me some good news.” Sarah smiled as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

“I’ve managed to put together a profile for you guys, it’s a preliminary one, some details could easily change as new info emerges.”

“I’m all ears.” Sarah said and she walked back to her desk, pulled out a notepad and a pen, ready for the magic of Sloane’s mind.

“According to the Holmes typology, he’s a process-focused killer. For the sub-type… he rapes and tortures the women before killing them, so he could be a hedonist lust killer, those derive sexual pleasure from killing.”

“Yeah, but he writes the word slut on their forehead, that suggest some anger, hate towards them.”

“That could make him fall into the power-seeking sub-type, they want to play God with their victims.”

“I’m voting for the second, he is killing them slowly and he is in charge of their lives for almost more than 24 hours.” Sarah agreed, taking more notes “Anything else for us?”

“Look, I have to get to an interrogation for Gibbs, but I’ve sent you everything in an e-mail.”

“You’re the best, Jack. I owe you one!” Sarah smiled then put down her phone and opened up her e-mails, a new one, unread from Sloane glaring at her in her Inbox.

She read through the file, comparing her notes and once she studied the profile, she stood up from her desk.

“Hey guys, I’ve got the profile for our Strangler, it’s a preliminary one…”

“Let’s hear it, Watson.” Voight interrupted her. He was heading for a coffee but instead ended up staying in the bullpen.

“Okay, based on how easily he picks up his victims, he is in his mid to late 30s, most probably good looking and fit enough to overpower these women. He’s processed-focused, which means he is killing his victims slowly.”

Antonio started taking notes on their whiteboard.

“He is a power-seeking killer, he wants to play God, he wants to be in charge of life and death.”

“That he is…” Kim scoffed.

“Based on the crime scenes he is organized and has a high IQ.”

“You got that from the crime scene photos?” Ruzek asked, still in doubt.

“We know he tortures and kills in one place, but disposes of the body somewhere else, that points to an organized killer. He also leaves controlled crim scenes with little to no evidence.”

“We only find what he wants us to find.” Halstead nodded.

“He had harsh physical abuse when he was younger, he had an unstable or missing mother figure.” she skimmed her notes “He most likely spent some time in the system for sex offender related crimes, nobody starts raping and killing outright.”

“Anything else, Watson?” Voight’s interest was slowly peaking.

“He is possibly college educated. His motivation seems to be based on anger and hatred for a specific age group of women with specific looks.”

Sarah walked to their victims’ evidence boards.

“Alison, 24, white, red hair and blue eyes.” she pointed out the most obvious features.

“Susan, 32, white, red hair and green eyes.” Upton looked at the second victim’s photos.

“Helen, 28, white, red hair and green eyes.” Kim stepped to the third victim’s board.

“I’m sensing a pattern there.” Antonio nodded, stepping to the fourth victim’s board “Samantha was 36, brown hair and blue eyes.”

“Wait, the first three had red hair and were younger.” Ruzek looked up at the others.

“I know her body been released to her family, so we can’t test her hair, but can somebody jump on their computer and check her Facebook or Instagram? There’s a high chance she had red hair at some point.” Watson was brainstorming

“Besides, she looks a lot younger than 36.” Halstead said as he typed in her name into the search bar “Bingo. Originally she had red hair, she dyed it brown the week she was killed.”

“So, he’s got a thing for young women with red hair?” Voight stepped closer to his team.

“And Dolly…” Sarah started, stepping to the board but not looking at the pictures “her original color was brown, but she had it dyed to a bright red a couple of weeks ago. She said it was going to be trendy.”

“And Dolly was 28, white and she had green eyes.”

“So, he has a type, like every men…” Ruzek still had some doubts.

“There are two more parts of the profile, the signature and the MO.” Sarah read from her notes “His signature is complex, he leaves his victims in areas they will be discovered fairly soon, he’s cocky and he thinks of these women as sluts who must be punished by him.”

“And what’s his MO?” seemed like Antonio was the most interested in profiling.

“He lures lonely, and most probably drunk women into his car from frequented clubs. So far he took them to the cemetery, where he tortured and raped them for a day, then kills them and dumps their body. This is consistent in all of his victims, the only difference with our Jane Doe from today is that he’s getting more brutal.”

Upton walked to the middle of the bullpen, looking at the victim boards.

“He picked up Samantha and Dolly at the Hideout. Could be safe to assume that’s where our Jane Doe partied as well.”

“We can get the footage from this weekend from the club, but with her face beaten up so badly, I don’t think we could pick her out from the crowd.” Ruzek shook his head slowly.

“Maybe not…” Sarah was thinking out loud “But remember, Dolly’s friends said the perp was older, he stood out from the crowd. If we can find him on Saturday night’s footage…” she was getting excited.

“Then maybe we can ID the Strangler and his latest victim as well.” Halstead agreed.

“They don’t have footage on the inside, but they have cameras at the entrance and exits.” Antonio added.

“There’s one way to get footage from the inside of the club.” Sarah said, turning to Voight “It’s a long shot, but social media could be our new friend.”

“Do it.” was all Voight said before he went to get a coffee from the breakroom. Sarah felt invigorated, her heart was beating faster at the thought of catching the bastard. She knew the next hours or days would be excruciating, reviewing all the footage from the club, but she also knew… if they could find any footage of the Strangler, it would all be worth it.

_to be continued_


	14. Explosive Forces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While our brave detectives are doing their best to catch the Strangler, we are picking up a storyline from Chicago Fire 7x04's timeline as well.

It had always been the waiting that drove Watson crazy. When there was nothing else to do, but wait for results. Wait for the final autopsy report, wait for the results from the crime lab and desperately hope for some clues that would help them identify and catch the Strangler. The team had spent Monday and Tuesday with combing through any social media posts they could find related to The HideOut club. Since the victim’s face had been bashed in, her face unrecognizable underneath all the bruises, they didn’t have any luck with her and as it turned out, too many guys, even older looking ones, enjoy visiting the club.

“So this was a bust…” Watson sighed.

“It was worth a shot, Sarah.” Kim answered closing the last of the videos on her computer.

“But we are still back to square one.” Sarah shook her head slowly.

Sarah’s computer chimed loudly, announcing a new e-mail, disrupting the silence in the bullpen. She opened it quickly and her mind started racing instantly. She clicked the attachment before saying anything to the others. She skimmed through the all too well-known reports until she found the one field she was looking for.

“Guys…” she waited a few seconds until all eyes were trained on her “We’ve got a DNA match.”

“Are you kidding?” Jay stood up from his desk and walked over to Watson.

“No… I just got the full autopsy report and the crime lab’s report. They ran her DNA through every system they could and they got a match.”

“Well don’t keep us waiting.” Kim walked over to Watson’s desk as well. Sarah clicked and typed a few then a window popped up on her screen.

“So they have found the match through VICAP.” she clicked on the case file number “Our victim is Jennifer Fowler, 26, born in 1992. She was reported as a missing person 5 years ago.” she skimmed the summary “In the end it turned out she had just ran away with her boyfriend, but her DNA remained in the system.”

“It’s safe to say he’s keeping to his preference. She’s young, good looking and her hair is also red.” Upton looked at Jennifer’s picture on the VICAP report.

“So she’s our 6th victim including the Nevada kills.” Antonio looked at their evidence boards.

“She is.” Voight agreed, he was standing in the middle of the bullpen, listening.

“He’s not going to stop.” Watson said as she clicked to print out the VICAP picture for their evidence board.

“He’s keeping to his Saturday – Monday timeline so far.” Ruzek looked at the crime lab’s report.

“But there may come a time when he escalates.” Voight nodded.

“And when he does, he might just grab the first red-hair he can find…” Jay shook his head slowly as he walked back to his desk.

“But more importantly, he might give up his timeline completely.” Watson said walking back from the printer “He might spend less time with each victim.” she handed Jennifer’s picture to Antonio, who pinned it up onto their board.

“Meaning we would have less time to find them.” Jay agreed.

“We can’t promise he would keep his hunting ground either.” Sarah looked at their timelines “So far all victims from this state went to the same bar.”

A thought crossed her mind, a dangerous one. One that could either help them catch the Strangler or one that could potentially lead to her ending up dead. She was reluctant to voice her idea, but her gears turning were written all over her face. Voight stepped closer to Sarah then folded his arms in front of his chest.

“What’s on your mind, Watson? I can see you thinking.”

“You might not like it…”

“Try me.” was all Voight said, interrupting her.

“I want to go in undercover at the bar.” she blurted out before her own heart could change her mind.

“That’s dangerous.” Upton stood up to protest.

“And I want to do it with a red hair wig.” Sarah added and the silence that followed was deafening. Voight looked at her and the others, carefully considering his options. Before he could make his decision, his phone started ringing in his office. So avoiding his answer, he walked back to his desk and picked up his phone. After a few short questions and nods, Voight walked back out and looked at his team.

“CFD requested the bomb squad and police response at a scene. The fire they caught had been caused by an explosion. 982 North Alfred.”

Sarah was trying to calculate in her head if Severide was working that day, but the ride to the crime scene was short and she had her answer as soon as she stepped out of her car. She saw Truck 81 and Engine 51 on scene and a group of firefighters were standing next to Chief Boden’s car, talking. She started walking towards the familiar figures, but Severide was not one of them.

“Chief Boden.” Sarah stepped up to the Boden, Casey, Stella and Herrmann.

“Detective Watson. Nice to see you again, wish it were under different circumstances.”

“Heard you caught a risky one.” Sarah looked at the house next to them, the fire was out and the bomb squad was working inside. Casey handed her the one piece of evidence he found during the overhaul.

“This is from a grenade.” Casey explained.

“Yes… I’ve seen my share of them, never thought I’d see them again in the middle of Chicago though.” she examined the pin, then pulled out an evidence bag from her pocket and sealed the pin into it.

“_House is clean, no explosives on scene_.” Boden’s radio crackled on his shoulder.

“Did the guy you pulled out survive?” Jay walked up to the group.

“He was breathing when we found him, ambo took him to Med.” Stella Kidd spoke who was finally back on Truck after missing out quite a few shifts due to her injury.

Sarah and Jay asked all the routine questions then they reported back to Voight while the firefighters left the scene, going back to Firehouse 51.

Sarah was on her way back to the district when the second call came through the radio. This time the explosion took place at a local park. Teenagers were playing around and Casey found the same grenade pin on the scene. Sarah decided to drive straight to Firehouse 51 where Kim and Atwater would be meeting her. The three of them walked into Boden’s office where Casey was also waiting for them.

“Two grenades in the same area on the same day is not a coincidence.” Boden was not in his usual happy mood.

“What do you think is going on?” Casey asked.

“It could be anything, from terrorism to teenagers pulling YouTube pranks.” Kim spoke before Sarah could.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like the woman in the park was targeted, just unlucky.” Boden added “She got hit with some shrapnel.”

“And for all we know, this morning could have been a suicide.” Atwater spoke, looking at Boden then at Casey. Sarah had to bite her lip not to say anything.

“The victim was holding onto the grenade… maybe he wanted to go out with a bang.” Atwater continued.

“Can you interview him?” Casey looked skeptical at best.

“We can’t. He’s still in critical.” Sarah spoke finally, she had her doubts as well.

“In the meantime we sent fragments from both scenes to the lab.” Kim nodded “We’ll see if the grenades are the same type. We might be able to ID them, get lucky, but…”

“It’s a long shot.” Sarah finished her sentence. Fragments are only enough to ID the type of the grenade, as these things don’t have serial numbers on them.

“Did you get a chance to talk to anybody who got a good look at those teens?” Atwater referred to the teenagers from the park.

“All we know is they were Caucasian males, around 15, 16 years old.” Casey shook his head slowly.

“Well, the city’s covered in cameras. We’ll see what we can find.” Kim nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll get the story out to the media too. Maybe we’ll get somebody on the tip line. Appreciate the info, Chief.” Atwater shook Boden’s head. They all said goodbye and started back to their cars.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll meet you back at the district.” Sarah smiled then took a turn towards the kitchen where the rest of the house mingled. When Stella noticed her, she handed Sarah two cups of coffee and pointed towards the quarters.

“Thank you.” Sarah smiled then walked to Kelly’s quarters. She gently pushed in the glass door with her leg. She stepped into the small office only to find Kelly asleep on his bed. Sarah put down the two steaming mugs onto his desk and tip-toed to his bed. She leaned down and planted a kiss on his lips. He shot up like he woke up from his worst nightmare.

“What the…” it only took him a few seconds to take her in “Don’t do that again.” he tried to calm his racing heart.

“What, did I scare you?” she grinned and he pulled her into his lap “My brave firefighter?”

“You see, I didn’t know you’d be here and I don’t want anybody else in this house kissing me…”

“Surprise then.” she laughed and pulled him in for another kiss, this time his fingers sank into her hair, his mouth hot and hungry against hers. His lips only left hers for a moment as he leaned his forehead to hers, his voice only a whisper.

“You know this is going to kill me for the rest of the shift, right?”

She smiled, caressing his cheeks then planting a kiss on his neck.

“I’m always yours, you know that.” she winked and a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

“Too bad there is no place to hide in this house…” she continued as she trailed her fingers down his chest to his belt.

“Oh there is, trust me.” he grinned and grabbed her hips, pulling her close to him.

“But this is not the time nor the place for what both of us have in mind.” she kissed him one last time before standing up and smoothing out her clothes “Call me when you get off shift and we can do something about that.” she smiled pointing at the obvious bulge growing in his pants then downed her cup of coffee and left for the district, trying to clear the red fog that started descending on her mind after those kisses. She needed to focus. They had grenades exploding around the city while they were still trying to catch the Strangler. She had to focus on her work.

_to be continued_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter!  
Things are about to get more complicated and even more dangrous in the upcoming chapters, so be sure to check back! ;)


	15. Catch a Grenade

Sarah was walking towards her car when an elderly woman walked by her, going straight towards the firehouse, a box in her hand. She didn’t pay much attention to her, the firehouse received donations throughout the year, so she just kept walking. She just reached her car when her phone started ringing, she quickly answered it.

“You still at 51?” it was Kim’s voice on the other side of the phone.

“I’m about to head back to you guys, why?”

“The lab identified the make of the grenades.”

“That was quick.” Sarah spoke as she turned around to head back to the firehouse.

“MK-2 hand grenades, at both of the scenes.”

“Those haven’t been in use since like Vietnam.” Sarah’s mind finally registered the old lady with the box who was still standing at the door, talking to Casey, who seemed surprised.

“Thanks Kim, I’ll let Boden know then I’ll meet you guys back at the station.” Sarah put away her phone then jogged up to Casey who by that time had the old lady’s box in his hands.

“Captain, is everything okay here?” Sarah asked as she reached them, then she finally saw the content of the box.

“Give it to me.” Sarah nodded and they carefully exchanged the box which held 5 grenades.

“I didn’t know, I swear.” the lady seemed truly sorry.

“Ma’am, I’ll need to talk to you, so just stay here with Captain Casey, okay?” Watson spoke without moving “These grenades are pretty old, they could be unstable.”

Sarah started walking towards the Squad table, the only place she knew she could put down the box full of grenades. Kelly and Cruz Tony were sitting at the table, reading. Severide noticed Sarah first and he was about to make a comment on her being back so soon when he saw her face.

“Cruz, clear everyone off the floor and get Boden.” Severide instructed him, then stepped to Sarah, putting his hands over hers to help steady her.

“What are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?” Sarah argued as they carefully placed the explosives on the table.

“Do you have your vest with you?”

“What?” she didn’t understand, the vest would help nothing against the shrapnel.

“Do you have your Kevlar with you?”

“Yeah, it’s in my car, why?”

“Blast radius shrinks to a few feet with a Kevlar vest around it.” Kelly explained.

“There’s two of them in the trunk.” Sarah handed him her keys then called Kim back to tell her the situation they were facing and to get the bomb squad there too. Kelly came back with the two vests and carefully placed them on the box.

“Should be fine until the bomb squad can take them away.” Kelly nodded, taking a few steps back from the table and Sarah followed. After sharing a meaningful look, they both walked up to Casey and the elderly woman who were standing outside next to Engine 51.

“Ma’am, could you please tell me where did you get those grenades?” Sarah asked the burning question.

“My dear husband fought in Vietnam, he collected all sorts of memorabilia. When he died last month, I knew I couldn’t hang onto all of his things. It was just too painful to even look at them.” she wiped away a few tears.

“I had a garage sale yesterday, where I sold most of his things. But I swear I didn’t know they were real. I thought they were just replicas, I never would have sold them if I knew they were real…”

“How many of those grenades did you sell?”

“Looked like three are missing.” Casey nodded towards the box.

“That’s right.” the woman agreed “There was a bald man, a young man who lives down the street…” she held a small pause “and a young boy I’d never seen before. He couldn’t have been more than 12.”

“Did you get the boy’s name?” Kelly asked before Sarah could, but the woman just shook her head. Sarah nodded and pulled Casey and Severide away from the woman.

“We’ll have to canvass the neighborhood. CPD is going to lead, but any chance 51 could join in as well?” Sarah looked at the two guys.

“Boden is the one to make that call, but we could put up fliers, make phone calls or even post on social media to warn people.” Casey offered.

“You don’t think that such a big CPD and CFD presence would cause a panic?” Severide voiced the obvious.

“It’s a risk we have to take.” Sarah nodded “The boy is around 12 years old. How long do you think until he finds a fun way to use a replica that he doesn’t know is a real one?”

Within 30 minutes police officers and firefighters swarmed the neighborhood with fliers, knocking on doors and talking to whoever they could find. Watson and Severide were putting up fliers on trees when Cruz approached them.

“I hit every house on the block.” he slowly shook his head “Nobody knows about any kid with a grenade.”

“So we hit the next block.” Sarah nodded.

“And then the next. He’s around here somewhere.” Kelly agreed as they continued their way up the street.

“We have to find him fast.” Sarah looked at Cruz who nodded and ran across the street to grab another pile of fliers and continue his door-to-doors.

They were coming up to the last tree before the intersection when a kid came up to them.

“Hey, is this for real?” the boy asked, he seemed to be around 12 years old.

“Yeah.” Severide nodded “You know something about it?”

The kid looked at Sarah’s badge, staring at her.

“Look, nobody’s in trouble.” Sarah spoke softly, walking to the kid “But whoever has that grenade is in serious danger. So if you know something… anything…”

The boy hesitated for a second until Severide stepped closer too.

“Kyle Buchanan has it.”

“You know where Kyle is right now?” Kelly asked.

“They are filming a movie in his backyard. It’s the last house down the alley.” the kid pointed towards the alley behind them. Severide started running.

“You did good!” Sarah smiled, then took off after Kelly who was talking to Boden in his radio. He had a head start and she saw him disappear into one of the backyards.

“Kyle, freeze! Freeze!” she heard Kelly yelling as she finally reached the backyard. Severide was standing at a distance from a boy who had a grenade in his hand.

“The grenade is real, Kyle. But it won’t go off unless you release the handle. So keep a tight hold on it, okay?”

Sarah ushered the five other kids towards the house while Severide walked closer to Kyle.

“You’re doing great, Kyle. Just take a deep breath, try to relax.” Kelly talked to the boy as he approached him. The kid looked utterly terrified, his hands shaking. Sarah took a few steps towards their direction once the other kids were at a safe distance.

“We’ll do this slowly, okay?” Severide stepped up to Kyle “So we don’t release the handle.”

Sarah whispered a curse as she watched Severide in action. She took a few more steps in their direction so he was only a few steps behind Kelly.

“Sarah, I got this, get back to the other kids.” Kelly insisted when he noticed her.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Sarah spoke “You’re doing great, Kyle, just relax.”

As Kelly held out his hand towards the kid, the boy fumbled and the grenade fell out of his hands, Kelly could barely catch it mid-air.

“Run!” he yelled and Sarah shoved the kid behind her towards the others. Severide looked around and finally saw a small pond not far away at the back of the garden, so he aimed and quickly threw the grenade into the water. Then he turned around only to see Sarah standing right in front of him. He pushed her onto the ground and seconds later the grenade exploded in the pond, raining water and pieces of flowers and grass on them. He was right on top of her and she was fully aware of how close he was, how he shielded her with his body.

“You okay?” his eyes were searching hers for an answer. She pulled him down for a quick kiss.

“You caught a grenade…” he stood up and pulled her up from the ground.

“The things I do for you.” he smiled and she just grasped the lapels of his shirt, pulling him closer. She leaned forward to kiss him again, deeper this time. He shifted one hand down to her hip, his fingers gripping her tight as the kiss grew deeper. Her hands moved to the hem of his shirt and she heard him groan, and slowly, ever so reluctantly, but he pulled away.

“That grenade could have gone off when you caught it.” she held him close to her.

“I guess I was lucky.” he smirked and kissed her one last time before they heard the rest of the team coming into the backyard.

“How about you try to steer clear of deadly explosives in the future?” she looked back at what was left of the pond.

“Can I ask you to steer clear of bullets then?” he asked as they started walking towards the others.

“Touché.” she pinched his arm.

“Is everyone okay?” Boden asked looking at Severide then Watson, both of their clothes soaked and dirty.

“We survived.” she nodded then pointed at the kids “And I think our friends will think twice before buying anything at garage sales.”

“Well hopefully nobody tries selling live grenades…” Kim agreed.

“Or at least not in our neighborhoods.” Casey shook his head slowly.

“You guys can had back to the station, CPD will handle the rest.” Atwater smiled, shaking hands with Boden, Casey then Severide.

“It’s going to be a long 24 hours before we see each other again.” Kelly lowered his voice so only Sarah could hear him.

“How about a promise? When I finish tomorrow I’ll pick up some dinner and head straight to your place?” she smiled at him.

“I’ll take it.” Kelly pulled her in for one last kiss then they said goodbye.

The rest of 51’s shift was painfully busy after their grenade chase, everyone was hoping for a calm night but it was fire after fire and accident after accident. So when Severide finally got home on Thursday morning, he jumped into his shower then moved into his bed to sleep off the adrenaline he still had coursing in his system and he couldn’t wait for Sarah to finish her day.

_to be continued_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd be more than happy to hear from you guys on what you think :)


	16. Late Night Dessert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who doesn't like a late night dessert right?  
Mature content warning ;)

The moment the clock hit 5pm, Sarah turned off her computer, said goodbye to the others, who were also getting ready to leave. She quickly swung by their favorite pizza place to pick up some dinner then drove straight to Severide’s place. She didn’t text him, she wanted to surprise him.

She caught the door downstairs when a neighbor came out then walked up to Kelly’s flat. She gently knocked on the door three times then waited. The door opened within a couple of minutes and she was greeted by his warm smile.

“Is that pizza you have there?”

“What? You’re not even happy to see me?” she smiled as he stepped aside to let her in.

“Not a lot of stuff on the list that can beat pizza…” he teased and at her look he walked up to her and pressed a soft kiss on her lips.

“Plus, you can always be my dessert…” he continued teasing as he pulled out two plates for them.

“Because I’m so sweet?” she winked.

“Because I like to eat you anytime and anywhere.” his answer against all her might made her blush and ignited the all too familiar fire pit in her stomach. So when he walked back towards her with the plates, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“What if I’d like you as my main course?” it was her time to tease back.

“I’d hate to disappoint you, but I’ve set my sights on that delicious pizza.” he smiled and slipped out of her embrace to get himself two slices. She shot him a disappointed look then took two slices for herself as well and joined him on the couch.

“So, how was your day?” she smiled between two bites.

“Nothing special, what about you? Are you guys any closer to catching the Strangler?”

Her stomach shrunk two sizes at the question and she tried her best to force down the last bite from her slice.

“Not exactly.” she shook her head slowly. She hesitated, Voight didn’t even approve it, so she was unsure if she should mention the undercover part. It was her idea and she very well knew how bad things could turn very quickly on these assignments. She lost her last NCIS partner to an undercover mission.

“I can see you thinking, Sarah.” he smiled, putting a hand on her thigh which brought her back to reality.

“It might be nothing, Voight haven’t even approved it yet…”

“So you don’t want to jinx it?” she could hear it in his voice how much he wanted to know what was bothering her. But she knew, if she told him, he’d start worrying about her too. And that was the last thing she wanted. On the other hand, he was her boyfriend, didn’t he deserve to know? She bit her lower lip, thinking over her options and she bit down so hard she almost drew blood.

“We might have a way to at the least ID the Strangler, and at the best even catch him.”

“Oh you do?” he looked genuinely interested.

“We know which club he likes to hunt at…” she held a small pause “And we know his preferences.”

When he didn’t press for more info, she opted for not sharing more. She didn’t want him to worry about her and she was afraid he might do something stupid out of love and maybe he would show up at the club to look out for her. Which would be extremely sweet and hot, just not the right thing to do on this case. She had to do this without him. Would her decision lead to a fight between her and Kelly? Most definitely… but if they caught the Strangler in the process, it would be all worth it. She just had to do this on her own.

She flipped the channels on the TV, but each of them were either busy with coming up with insane theories on the Strangler or they had some silly day-time soap opera going on. She sighed, turning off the TV. She picked up their empty plates and walked to the kitchen. He knew something was going on with her, something that she either couldn’t or simply just didn’t want to share with him. And he knew better than to press her. Eventually she would tell him everything anyway. But he could see that this case was eating her up.

“Just promise me one thing.” he said as he walked up behind her and hugged her from behind, resting his chin in the crook of her neck.

“What?” she asked, easing into his hug. She had never felt safer or at ease than in his embrace, no matter where or when he was hugging her.

“Try not to get yourself killed, okay?” his words hit her like an oncoming train.

“Cause you love me so much?” she tried playing it off and he spun her around in his arms.

“Actually yes.” he stared into her eyes “I love you very much, Sarah, so just please, don’t do anything reckless.”

He put a finger on her lips, silencing her.

“I don’t want to lose you.”

She kissed his finger then wrapped her arms around his neck again.

“You’re not losing me, I told you.” she rested her forehead against his “I’m always yours.”

A wicked smile played on his lips as he captured her lips in a soft, but sweeping kiss. The kiss felt to go on forever and she felt herself starting to melt into him.

“How about you show me exactly how much you love me?” she teased, her arms still around his neck. He moved his hands up to cup her cheeks, his eyes staring straight into her soul. They were so close to each other, his lips were only a breath away from hers. She could feel her heart thumping loudly in her chest.

“Or… how about I show you this time?” she smiled and his eyes turned an even darker shade of blue. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He set her down on the counter behind her, right on the edge and he pressed his hips against hers.

“What did you have in mind?” his voice was a low whisper against her neck as he kept placing small kisses there. He kissed her collarbone as he teased aside her top.

“I remember you talking about something you ordered a couple of weeks ago that we haven’t tried out yet.” she smiled, pulling him up for a small kiss.

“You mean the cuffs?” his eyes went wide and his grip on her waist tightened.

“Since you paid for it, why not use it?” she smiled “I just hope you didn’t opt for the pink ones, those are simply dreadful.”

He picked her up again and while engaging in a sweet but hungry kiss, he carried her into his bedroom and laid her down on the bed. Kelly leaned over her to kiss down her jaw and to the edge of her neckline, his free hand tugging at the hem of her top.

“I’ll be right back.” he smiled and walked into his bathroom, bringing out a small black box minutes later. He handed it to her and she eagerly opened it, only to reveal a pair of bright red fluffy handcuffs.

“You went for red, huh?” she smiled “Now… would you mind being the first to try this on?”

His eyes sparkled and were such a deep shade of blue, she was afraid she’d get lost in them. He just groaned as she pulled him down onto the bed and she slowly pulled off his shirt, placing small kisses on his chest. She ever so slowly ran her hands over the fabric of his pants before pulling it down along with his boxers.

“You are awfully overdressed…” he teased and she slowly pulled off her clothes with a wicked smile playing on her lips. When she was naked as well, she climbed back next to him. She picked up the handcuffs, slapping them on his wrists while slipping it over one of the bedposts. Kelly tested the restraints, pulling against it, but it didn’t budge. Sarah raked her fingernails over the muscles of his chest, enjoying the way they rippled under her touch while staying tense from being restrained. She straddled his thigh, keeping her distance, then she leaned down to kiss him and he moaned softly, his wrists still straining against the cuffs as she deepened the kiss.

“Don’t resist…” she whispered in his ear “Just enjoy.” he groaned and his hips bucked.

Sarah very slowly crawled up over his body and lowered herself onto him, leaning over to brace on the mattress as his hips kept rising to meet hers. Determined to be in control, she pressed herself to him, straddling him, keeping him from moving his hips. He groaned again, his hands gripping the bedpost.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Sarah…” his voice was low and husky.

“Oh but what a sweet death…” she trailed her fingers across his chest as she smirked at him. She leaned down for another kiss, rocking her lips slowly, but with force. Teasingly, she pulled off of him, inching back until she could wrap her fingers around him and stroked him, hard. His head lulled back, almost banging against the headrest as she continued her torture, circling her thumb around his tip.

“Sarah…” her name was a warning and she climbed back up, lowering herself onto him again.

“You want me to free you or can you take a few more minutes?” she asked as she rocked her hips slowly, showering his neck and chest with small kisses.

“I want to touch you…” he pleaded. She smiled, leaning over him to grab the keys from the nightstand then finally freed him. She massaged his wrists, placing small kisses on them then she let go of him, his hands free to roam again. He brought one of his hands in between her legs and she threw her had back as pleasure rippled through her.

“I thought I had to rip off the bedpost just to be able to touch you…” he smiled, his other hand gripping her waist, letting out a growl as she tightened around him.

“Would have been a shame, it’s a perfectly nice bed…” she teased but she couldn’t finish her sentence. She had to grab his shoulders for balance as the shivers wrecked her body. His hands were back on her hips and before she could protest, he flipped her, pushing her into the bed with his body. He placed a searing kiss on her lips while he fumbled with the cuffs and while the kiss left her breathless, it was too late when she realized what he had done.

“Oh no you didn’t!” she strained against the cuffs but to no avail.

“I’m just getting my dessert…” he teased, winking and he started kissing his way down her neck and chest, his lips moving lower and lower until she let out a moan. He gripped her hips and she desperately wanted to tangle her fingers in his hair as his tongue worked against her core, but she couldn’t this time. Her body started trembling as he sucked, nipped and licked at her. She had to bite back a scream that she was sure would have been heard in the entire complex as he drove her over the edge.

With a smirk playing on his lips, he moved back up and lowered himself into her. His hips fit perfectly between her thighs and she arched up to meet him, greedy for a deeper contact. With one quick motion he pushed his hip forward and that was a scream she couldn’t bite back anymore.

“Hey…” he peppered her neck with small kisses “You keep that up and the neighbors are going to call the cops on us.”

“Well… you are killing me here.” she was breathless, stars dancing behind her eyes. He just grinned, leaning down for a sweet but passionate kiss as he started to move in a steady pace, burying his face in her neck so he could bring her tighter against him. She could feel the pleasure surging again and she threw her head back as his hips moved more frantically, bringing her to a whole new height of ecstasy.

“Kelly…” she tried biting back another scream building inside her.

“Oh God you are amazing…” he groaned and pinned her down with his body, moving as eagerly as he could while she wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him even closer.

With her legs wrapped around him, he kept slamming into her and he hit just the right spot and she exploded, crying out his name as her body trembled. He pumped his hips a few more times, letting her ride out the wave of ecstasy before he followed. He quickly unlocked the cuffs, kissing her hands, then rolled down next her and she snuggled up to him.

“I think these cuffs were a brilliant idea.” he smiled and kissed the top of her head.

“Next time, you are staying in them, no matter what.” she winked and he leaned down to kiss her. Her heart was still racing and she was trying to catch her breath. He pulled the covers over them and although it was fairly early in the night, they let themselves fall into a deep slumber, holding onto each other. They were safe. Little did they know, it was not for long… Danger was lurking right around the corner…

_to be continuned_


	17. Doomed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Danger ahead!

The days slowly passed until Saturday with no developments in the case. On Friday, Voight reluctantly, but agreed to the undercover work, so when the time came Sarah and Kim got dressed for a night of partying. It was Saturday night, the Strangler’s usual hunting time and they were going to his hunting ground. The Hideout.

Watson had a wig on, which gave her bright red hair, she sot a selfie for Kelly, but she decided not to send it, she would just get him engaged and then she would have to dodge his texts to work. She didn’t even tell him she was going undercover. She was sitting at the side of the bar, sipping away on her cocktail when suddenly a 30-something man sat down next to her.

“You here alone tonight?” the man asked, looking at her.

“Yeah… my deadbeat boyfriend is at some poker night or whatever with his college buddies.” Sarah answered with her pre-scripted story, not even looking at the guy.

“So, you are free tonight?” the man kept staring at her.

“You could say that.” She grinned “I’m going to hook up tonight and dump his sorry ass tomorrow. I deserve better than that prick.” she finally looked at him.

“Well, how about this, doll? I buy you another round then show you what you deserve.”

“Sounds fantastic.” she had to try her best to sound excited at the prospect of getting drinks with a serial killer. Sarah had to admit though that the guy was fairly good looking and she could see why the other girls went with him so easily.

“I’ll be right back.” the man smiled, disappearing into the crowd at the bar, trying to order their drinks.

“Ewww…” Sarah’s earpiece crackled “You are playing this role too well, Watson.” Kim’s voice crackled over the loud music. She was sitting at the other side of the bar, keeping an eye on Sarah, being her backup.

“I have to.” Sarah whispered back while keeping her drink up to her mouth so nobody could see her talking. A few minutes later the guy cam back with a beer and a cocktail and sat back next to Sarah, a bit closer this time. Kim took out her phone and acted like she was taking selfies while she took a couple of shots of Sarah and the serial killer, trying to capture as much of his face as she could. She sent the pictures to the Intelligence unit for analysis right away.

Once they finished their drinks, the man asked Sarah to dance a bit and she agreed – she had to play her role – so he led her to the dance floor. Kim tried to follow them, but the crowd seemed too big.

“At least tell me your name.” Sarah smiled “Since we’re getting so close.”

“Max.” the man smiled as they danced. Within a few minutes, Sarah started getting dizzy.

“Why don’t we get out and get some fresh air?” Max suggested and led Sarah towards the back door. She was stumbling as she tried to stay focused.

“Perhaps I had too much to drink. Some fresh air could be good.” Sarah agreed and hoped Kim could hear her in her earpiece and follow them out to the parking lot. They walked out into the warm night, Sarah was getting dizzier every minute and she could barely stand. Max leaned up to her ear to talk into her earpiece.

“Lying also makes you a sinner.” and with that he yanked the gadget out of her ear, dropped it onto the ground and stepped on it, smashing it into tiny pieces.

Kim was fighting her way through the crowd in the bar when his voice boomed in her ear and then only static followed. She started running towards the door, sending a 911 text to Halstead as she turned towards the parking lot and pulled out her gun from her purse.

By the time Kim got to the parking lot, Sarah was in and out of consciousness on the floor of a van Max had pushed her into. But the car was not moving, they were still at the lot. He didn’t even have to restrain her, she couldn’t get up even if she wanted to. Whatever he gave her was so potent she was wondering how she was still alive. Her senses were dimmed as well, sounds came through muffled. But before she could debate on how to escape, the van’s door opened and another body was thrown in next to Sarah, then the door closed. She struggled to keep her eyes open to see who was there with her. It was Kim. She was unconscious and her hands and legs were tied together with cable ties.

Sarah was trying her best to stay awake, she was watching the buildings blur by and the night sky of Chicago fading into darkness. They were heading out of town. Against all her struggles the drug overpowered her and her eyes closed slowly.

***

The next time her eyes opened she needed a couple of blinks to get used to the darkness surrounding her. When she tried to move, she felt restraints on her hands, she was cuffed to something, something she couldn’t see or make out yet. Her legs were tied together with cable ties.

“Kim.” She whispered, trying to make out her surroundings as her senses started to clear up.

“I’m here.” her voice was hoarse “You okay?”

“He drugged me…”

“I got the taser.” Kim was trying to move but she was restrained too.

“Ah good…” his voice boomed through the empty place “You’re finally awake.”

“Come here so I can kill you, you son of a bitch!” Sarah was getting frustrated by the minute.

“You might want to think twice about making such threats.” Max stepped over to Kim and placed a small light next to her on the ground. Then he hit Kim on the face and in the stomach, full force.

“Our team will track us down and kill you…” Kim said as she spat out some blood.

“What…” _hit_ “did I” _hit_ “tell you” _another_ _hit_ “about threats?” _another hit_. This time all four’s intended target was Sarah and in that moment she wished the drug’s effects were not fading so fast so it wouldn’t have hurt as much. Before they could oppose any further, he injected each of them with a special cocktail of his own making.

“Sleep tight, dolls.” he smiled as he looked over them “Tomorrow is the Lord’s day, and we can finally purge you of your sins. Don’t worry, by Monday morning you’ll be ready to meet the Lord himself.”

With that he disappeared, leaving the two restrained women alone, with only the flashlight illuminating the corner of the room.

“Kim?”

“Yeah?”

“We need to figure out something…” her speech was getting slower with each word.

“I can’t think straight…” Burgess was getting drowsy too “I just want to sleep…”

“Kim, don’t!” Sarah tried struggling, but her restraints held her back “He’s going to kill us… Kim?”

But no answer came and within minutes Sarah fell onto the ground, fast asleep as well.

***

In the meanwhile, Halstead looked at his phone in horror. He received the 911 text from Kim just over an hour ago. They immediately started tracing both Kim’s and Sarah’s phones but they both disappeared within minutes of the text. They were last pinging from The Hideout’s parking lot. Atwater was walking between the cars in the lot when he suddenly stopped.

“Guys, you have to see this.” he called out and Voight, Antonio and Halstead rushed to him. They were looking at the two smashed earpieces on the ground.

“The son of a bitch has them.” Halstead spoke finally.

“Let’s find them then! I want answers yesterday!” Voight’s voice rang out in the otherwise empty parking lot.

***

Sarah woke up with a jolt, hoping everything that was flooding her memory from the previous night was just a nightmare. But when she opened her eyes and she looked around, she had to realize, none of it was a nightmare. It was all very real. And to her horror she also realized that most of her clothes were gone and she was only in her underwear.

“Sarah?” Kim’s voice was barely a whisper, only meant for Watson to hear.

“I’m up. You okay?”

“So far just a couple of bruises.” Kim said as she tried to get out of her restraints. Kim was also just in her underwear. The room was still dark, only the light of the flashlight illuminated them.

“We need to figure something out before he comes back.” Sarah tried her restraints as well but to no avail.

“Might be too late for that.” Kim whispered as they heard his steps getting closer.

“Good morning, dolls!” he sounded excited “Who is ready for some purging?”

“Fuck you!” was all Sarah said, but in response he slapped her hard.

“Now, now, you are a feisty one… I might start with you.” he grinned, leaning over Sarah.

“Loosen my restraints and I can show you how feisty I am.” Sarah always had a big mouth on her, willing to speak her mind, no matter the consequences.

Without a word, he stepped in front of Watson and tugged at her bra. He cupped her breasts and she just squirmed, trying to get away from him. He pulled her up into a standing position and she could finally see more of the room they were locked up in. It was a basement, pipes running everywhere and her and Kim were tied to two pillars. She was trying to plan an escape when her mind brought her back to reality as he pushed his hand down her stomach. Out of anger, she did the first thing she thought of and bit into the guys shoulder, full force, until she could taste blood in her mouth. With a loud yell he let go of her and brought his hand up to his shoulder. When he looked at it, blood was glistening on his fingers in the faint light.

“Oh you are going to regret that, bitch!” with that he punched her in the face and kicked out her legs, which caused Sarah to tumble onto the ground with full force. She instinctively curled into a fetal position so the next kick landed on her shin and she almost cried out at the pain then he leaned down and hit her in the face. Despite her best efforts, the world started fading around her. Her mind was going into safe, survival mode.

“Now you’ll watch.” he grinned then turned to Kim and Sarah’s mind gave out as she heard Kim screaming. She wished she could get up and do something, to kill Max, but her body was turning on its safe mode, shutting out all the pain she was feeling.

_to be continued_


	18. Sliver of Hope

Watson didn't know how long the Strangler had them, her mind was trying to protect itself by shutting out certain senses. Despite her aching body, she managed to pull herself up into a sitting position. A couple beams of sunlight shone in through the basement window and rarely she could hear a couple of cars drive-by.

“Sarah…” Kim’s voice was hoarse from all the screaming. What that bastard did to her would probably never leave either of their minds.

“I’m here.” Sarah whispered back, trying to keep her voice as low as possible.

“What if… they are… not coming?”

The thought had passed her mind as well. They were being held God knows where and even though the team was good, it was an almost impossible task. The needle in a haystack kind.

“They’ll find us!’ she tried to encourage Kim, but her own voice breaking failed her.

“Yeah… our bodies most likely.” Kim scoffed and Sarah could feel a single tear rolling down her face.

“We can’t afford to think like that, Kim!” she gathered all her strength “We can’t let him break us… because that’s when he wins.”

“Get me out of my restraints and I’ll gladly kill the son of a bitch myself.” Kim shook her restraints but to no avail. Their legs were tied with ropes instead of the original cable ties, but their hands were in handcuffs… and the not the comfy, fun ones.

“My wrists feel like they are about to just fall off…” Sarah tried moving, but it just hurt even more.

***

It was Sunday and Severide got home after his shift at 7am. After a quick shower and some breakfast, he jumped into bed and texted Watson.

_Morning sunshine, u up for grabbing lunch today?_

No answer came, but he just assumed it was too early for Watson to be up yet, so he put down his phone and went to sleep. He awoke to his doorbell’s persistent ringing and knocking at his door at around 10am. He pulled on a shirt and shorts then jogged to the door. He practically threw it open.

“What?!” he asked angrily before his sleepy mind could recognize Halstead and Voight standing in his doorway.

“What happened?” he asked, not moving an inch.

“It’s better if we discuss this inside, Lieutenant.” Voight spoke softly.

Kelly let them in then turned to them for answers.

“Where’s Sarah?”

“Detective Watson had been… kidnapped.” Jay drew the short straw on having to make the notification.

“What?” a hundred questions raced through his mind but this was the only he could form.

“She was working undercover…”

“What??” Kelly was becoming furious; this was the first time he was hearing about this.

“We set a trap for the Strangler.” Voight continued.

“But he outsmarted two of CPD’s finest.”

“Two?”

“He also has Burgess…”

“Oh my God…” Kelly couldn’t believe this was happening “Do you have any leads?”

“A couple of witnesses and we are tracking a suspicious van, but he took them to an unknown location.”

“He needs space for holding two strong women…” Kelly scratched his head “I can get you a list of abandoned buildings from CFD…”

“We’re already combing through the list.” Voight nodded.

“How long have they been gone?”

“Approximately 12 hours…”

“And you didn’t think to call me sooner?” his rage was intensifying again.

“There’s nothing you could have done, Lieutenant.” Voight stepped towards the door “This was a courtesy too, we’re keeping a tight lid on this one.”

“A courtesy?” Kelly’s voice was dangerously rising, but Voight was already out the door. So Severide grabbed Jay’s shoulder as he was heading out the door too.

“Can I count on you Jay to call me or do I have to camp out at the 21st?”

Jay sighed deeply as Kelly let go of him.

“I’ll call you…” he turned back to face Kelly from the doorway “But you gotta understand man, these situations come with her job description. Just as you can get injured at a fire scene.” with that he walked out the door leaving Severide alone with his thoughts.

***

Watson awoke to a jolt; her mind woke her up from a horrible nightmare. She tried to wiggle her way out of the restraints, but it seemed like an impossible task. She could feel the rope burn the skin on her ankles as she kept trying to loosen them.

“It’s going to leave a burn.” Kim sighed not far away from her “I tried.”

“I have to do something before I go crazy.” she kept wiggling and she knew she would probably regret it later on, but kept doing it anyway.

“If you ever get free, I know a way to send a sign to the team.” Kim’s voice was so low, barely even a whisper that Sarah had to strain to hear her.

“What are you talking about?”

“He didn’t ditch our phones… they are on that table in the corner.” Kim nodded towards a dimly lit corner where Sarah could barely make out the table.

“It’s one thing to get my legs free, but these are proper handcuffs, I’m not getting out of them without a key.” she strained on her wrists, immediately regretting it. The pain was almost too much and she had to bite back a scream.

“You don’t have to…” Kim struggled to sit up and look at Watson “We are tied to pipes.”

“I just need to follow their lines without making too much noise.”

“Exactly.”

Sarah had her first sliver of hope in a long time. She was not one to give up easily, that was one of her traits that made her a great detective. But this captivity felt like an impossible challenge to overcome. But this tiny sliver of hope got her mind working again, almost throwing it into overdrive. They both were so ready to be done with the situation and both of them had their eyes set on revenge. Was it a healthy mind-set? Who cares… if they didn’t have the chance to do it, Voight would kill the son of a bitch anyway.

_to be continued_


	19. Impurity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the wait is over, the new chapter is here. Enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts, feel free to leave a comment! :)

Watson’s body was aching in places she didn’t even know could hurt, but she still had to try standing up. The rope around her ankles came somewhat loose, but not enough to just shake it off. She had to bend over and try to lift her legs to her hands, so that she could untie the rest of the rope. She struggled for quite a bit but finally managed to pull it off. She stood up way too quickly and she had to steady herself on the pipe she was still chained to. The world was spinning around her and Watson had a hard time staying on her feet.

“Sarah? You okay?” Kim whispered as she watched Watson struggle.

“Probably my blood sugar… I think it’s almost Sunday night already.” Sarah pointed towards a window on the other side of the basement where the incoming sunlight was more dim than it had been the last time she had checked.

“That’s not good. He’s killing on Monday mornings. If you don’t reach out cells, we are good as dead.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Sarah scoffed then started to move very slowly, careful not to hit the pipe. She tried holding her hands above the pipe so the cuffs wouldn’t scratch on it; the noise would have give away their plan. She inched forward slowly, one step after another. In the meanwhile Kim kept watching the door from where their captor could enter the basement. But the guy was nowhere, they were all alone downstairs for the time.

The pipe Watson was following abruptly started going upwards a few feet away from the desk.

“Fuck…” she cursed under her breath “The pipe stops here… I might be too far away to reach the desk.” she whispered to Kim.

“That’s why he left our phones… we couldn’t reach them even if we wanted to.”

Sarah’s head was still somewhat spinning, but she tried her best to focus and to think of something. In a sudden, split-second decision, she decided she’d try something a bit out of the box.

“I’ll try to reach it with my legs.”

“Good God…” Kim was starting to give it all up.

Sarah grabbed the pipe with both hands, steadied herself and pushed herself into the air, her ankle landing on the desk with a not too soft thud. That hurt… a lot.

“Ffffuck…” she bit her lower lip, trying to inch forward her leg on the desk. After a few trying minutes she finally managed to reach the phones. She grabbed one of the phones with her toes and brought it to the ground in front of her. She sat down on the floor and picked up the phone. She couldn’t believe how lucky she was. It was her own phone with just 10% on the battery. She quickly sent a 911 text to Halstead and she was just about to make a call when they heard a door opening upstairs. She expertly tossed the phone back onto the desk, not caring about the noise it made and she rushed back to the place she was supposed to be sitting at.

“So?” Kim whispered as they listened to the footsteps getting closer to the last door that was still separating them from the Strangler.

“I texted Jay, they’ll ping the cell.” Sarah whispered back just before they heard the lock turning.

“It’s time to meet your makers, ladies.” The Stranglers voice boomed in the basement.

“So you are going to kill us in a filthy basement?” Sarah asked, trying desperately anything that could buy them enough time “Is that any way to treat the ladies?”

“Lord no…” the guy laughed “you see, ladies, we are no longer in Chicago. I wanted to have you two some place special.” he kept walking towards them, a small briefcase in one hand and a small keychain in the other.

“You killed the others in a cemetery…” Kim started.

“They didn’t deserve better!” the guy snapped for a second, then went back to his calm voice as he walked over to the desk.

“We are not so far away from your lovely city, barely 30 miles…” he put the briefcase and the keys on the desk “this quaint little basement was full of life merely 60 years ago, 3000 people came here to worship the Lord every Sunday, sitting just above our heads.”

“You want to kill in a church?” Sarah asked, wriggling a bit so that she could figure out what the guy was fidgeting with on the desk. But it was too dark to make it out.

“There aren’t many places to be closer to the Lord.” he smiled.

“You are sick!” it slipped out and Kim immediately regretted it as the guy turned around to face them.

“I’m only doing the Lord’s work, cleansing this world of impure souls.” he was getting angry.

“You could probably kill half the planet with that view. I mean, who is pure these days?” Sarah tried to keep her voice even. Getting him angrier might not be a perfect choice, but keeping him talking, that would most definitely buy them some time. Buy the team the time. Neither Watson nor Burgess was ready to die that night and they were both willing to fight for their lives.

“Unfortunately, that is true.” he held a small pause “I have my work cut out for me. There are many lost souls I need to steer back to the Lord.” he agreed to the women’s surprise then turned back his attention to whatever he had on the desk.

***

Jay Halstead almost fell out of his chair when he saw the text message on his phone.

_911_

It came from Watson’s phone which they couldn’t ping so far. He wasn’t the only one in the bullpen at 6pm on that Sunday night. Every remaining member of the Intelligence unit was there. They all knew the odds, how horrible they were, but they tried to work desperately against them.

“Someone start pinging Watson’s phone…” Jay stood up, still looking at his phone in disbelief.

“But we already tried that…” Atwater started.

“Just do it!” Jay yelled. Antonio clicked and typed away on his computer quickly.

“It’s pinging.” Antonio couldn’t believe his eyes either. They have been unsuccessful for so long, it seemed too good to be true.

“Voight!” Jay called out and a few seconds later Hank walked out of his office, waiting for them to elaborate on their findings. They were all on their 5th cup of coffee of the day and after that much caffeine, Voight was always quieter than usual.

“Sarah’s phone was turned back on, we’re pinging it now.” Antonio pointed at his screen.

“I got a text from her.” Jay showed his phone to Voight, who probably looked at it for a nanosecond then refocused his attention on Antonio’s monitor.

“Is it still in Chicago?” Voight asked. The red circle flashing over the US map started zooming in and it kept flashing over Indiana.

“At least they are only one state over.” Jay sighed, waiting for the red circle to point at a specific location. In a matter of seconds, the map changed again. This time, the red circle stopped flashing and a pop-up window came up with an address.

“Let’s get going, address was sent to your GPS.” Antonio said after clicking a few.

“577 Washington St, Gary…. why does that address sound so familiar?” Hailey asked as she grabbed her badge and gun and started for the door following the others.

“It’s an abandoned church.” Atwater replied looking up the address on GoogleMaps while they were rushing to their cars.

“Of course, the Gary Methodist Church, the building is derelict, they wanted to demolish it, but the city doesn’t have the funds.”

“So it’s in a bad shape?” Jay looked at Hailey as they sat into their cars.

“Very.”

It was a good 45 minutes’ drive even with the sirens on and they hoped they could find Kim and Sarah in time, still alive.

_to be continued_


	20. Ready to Meet the Lord

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been almost a month since the last chapter, but work has been crazy. Enjoy tonight's chapter and please feel free to leave a comment. Stay safe! <3

Severide’s phone rang a little after 6pm that Sunday and he literally jumped up from the couch to check it. It was a text from Halstead – just an address:

577 Washington St, Gary, IN

That address was one state over, but he was hoping he could get there as soon as possible. His heart was racing as he picked up his coat and ran down to his car. He hit the pedal and drove just under the speedlimit, trying to find the shortest route to Gary, Indiana. He had to be there, he had to see her, he wanted to be able to hold her in his arms again. He knew very well that it was late Sunday night and they had a very short window to rescue Sarah and Kim. But he had to believe it would work.

***

Halstead sent the text 10 minutes after they had left the station on purpose. He knew Severide would just jump into his car and floor it until he made it to Gary. The Intelligence team had to be the first on scene. He was still pulling a risky move with sending the address to Kelly. Jay knew he’d be doing the same thing as Kelly if he were in Severide’s place. If someone he loved so dearly was kidnapped, he wouldn’t sleep until he had them back in safety either.

“Do you think we can get there in time?” Upton’s voice brought Jay back to reality.

“I have to… if we lose hope…” Jay shook his head slowly as he pushed pedal to the metal.

“He made a bold choice kidnapping two cops, what if he doesn’t keep to his schedule? What if we are too late?” she voice’s everyone’s fear.

“No, no…” Halstead gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles started turning white “He is a creature of habit, he is not going to abandon that. And we just received that text…” he took a deep breath “They have to be alive, we can’t lose any more of us.”

***

It was getting dangerously dark outside and Sarah was beginning to think they were doomed as well. The Strangler drugged them with something that was making them dizzy and they could barely focus. But Watson noticed they were no longer in the basement. He dragged them upstairs and he was getting the altar ready for some sick ritual of his. Without saying a world, he turned around, took a look at them, then walked away, leaving them alone.

“We need to get out of here!” Kim whispered. They were sitting on the floor, propped up next to a half derelict pillar.

“I can barely see straight much less stand up or run…” Sarah shook her head slowly to bring the world into focus, but immediately regretted doing so as it only made her dizzier.

“Our legs are not bound…” Kim kept whispering, her mind more in focus at that moment.

“You are right…” Watson sighed, she was trying to bring her mind back to reality, but being so dizzy and unfocused for who knows how long, had an effect on her stomach as well. She felt as if she tried standing up, she would just end up hunched over, vomiting.

“You go…” she whispered to Burgess.

“What? No!” she tried to keep her voice down “I’m not leaving you here, Watson!”

“You have to, I’m deadweight right now. Go… get help!” she closed her eyes, hoping the world would stop spinning “The team should be here soon!”

“Okay, but…” Kim leaned in close “Try not to get yourself killed, okay?”

Watson just nodded slowly, eyes still closed. She heard Kim stand up and tiptoe away from her. Sarah kept her eyes closed, trying to rely only on her ears. She heard Kim’s feather light footsteps fade away and she could only hope Kim could find a way out of that place and flag somebody down for help.

Her mind was just starting to relax and come more into focus when she heard a creaking noise and then footsteps, coming closer. But those steps sounded heavier than Kim’s… it was the Strangler coming back. She kept still as if she was frozen, hoping he would just walk by her without noticing that Kim was gone. And he did! He just walked by without even glancing her way. Watson slowly opened her eyes to try and make out what he was doing. He walked up to the altar, or at least what was left of it and started lighting the candles he had just brought with him.

One by one, very slowly, placing the lit candles delicately back on the altar in some unique form; _probably a circle_ – Watson thought. He was running out of candles any minute and Watson could not hear the cavalry coming to save her. _This is it_ – she thought.

“_This is not how it should be ending_…” her thoughts were racing, images of people in her life popping up in her mind. Severide with his thousand-Watt smile, Torres with his signature wink, his friends and colleagues at Intelligence and NCIS… They do say your life’s film flashes in front of your eyes before you die. Was this her mind’s way of preparing her for the inevitable doom ahead of her? Was this just a defense mechanism of her mind, trying to keep her grounded? Or was it a reminder of what she still had to fight for? Her reason to survive…

He finished lighting the last candle and he looked up as if he was praying to God. Watson noticed the huge glass window just a few feet behind the altar and she could see the streetlights seeping through. IT was dark outside, but what she couldn’t see was what upset her even more. The lack of blue and red lights flashing, indicating the cavalry she was so desperately hoping for… no, by then she was desperately praying would arrive in time.

“Let’s see… who do we purge first?” his voice snapped her mind back to reality in an instant and she focused on his form. He slowly turned around and his eyes were fixed on the empty space next to Watson.

“Well… that is a rather unfortunate turn of events… for you, my dear.” he spoke softly and started to walk towards Watson with something in his hand. She could barely make out what it was, but she could finally identify the object when a ray of streetlight from a hole in the roof shed some light on it. A belt, with a rather large buckle. She squirmed, trying her best to stand up and her first mistake was when she turned her back towards him, trying to move to a better position to stand up. The snap of the belt and the stinging pain on her back made her fall forward with a scream she couldn’t hold back.

Watson’s scream split the air just when Kim had finally stumbled outside. She scratched the rope binding her hands against the property’s fence and after a couple of tries her hands were free too. Another scream came from the church and Kim hesitated to just run back and overpower the sick son of a bitch and save Sarah. But she knew their best chance would be if she could flag somebody down for help. She looked around, there was a school in front of her on the other side of the street, to the right, a parking garage and some stores. She looked to the left and she had her first sliver of hope as she saw a row of houses. She wasn’t a hundred percent confident in her legs, but she tried walking as fast as she could. She was just reaching the intersection about to cross the road towards the houses when she heard cars approaching, their headlights all focused on her. She heard familiar voices, but her mind was too foggy to place them and the headlight blinding her weren’t much help either. She only realized it was the cavalry when Ruzek stepped in front of her.

“Sarah…” her voice was horse and she could barely believe they found them.

“Where’s Watson?” she heard Jay’s voice from behind her. She turned around and was about to answer when another scream split the air.

“It’s coming from the church!” Hailey pointed towards the entrance and raised her gun in front of her starting for it. Voight, Jay, Antonio and Atwater followed her, while Ruzek stayed behind. Just as the rest of the team disappeared into the church, a squad car and two ambulances arrived without their sirens or their lights on. A couple of paramedics ran up to Kim, leading her back to the ambulance while Ruzek spoke with the local cops.

The minutes ticked by slowly as the Intelligence team progressed inside the church.

“You are almost ready to meet our Lord, dear detective…” his voice boomed through the otherwise empty structure.

“You are free of your biggest sin… lying. Now there’s just a couple more steps and you’ll be standing before our Lord, ready to be accepted to Heaven to start a new, clean life.”

Watson was slipping in and out of consciousness due to the unbearable pain coursing through her body, tears streaming down her face. Through the faint light of the candles, she could make out somebody coming towards her, then she heard yelling, a male voice she knew sounded familiar, but couldn’t place it and then a single gunshot and a body fell next to her, but she couldn’t move. She was lying on the floor in a small pool of her own blood, frozen.

_to be continued_


	21. Let the Tears Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not an easy chapter guys, so reader discretion is advised! Feel free to leave comments, I love reading what you guys think!  
Stay safe in these crazy times and there a couple more chapters left of this story ;)

Watson could feel a warm liquid dripping on her back, one her mind was unfortunately too familiar with. So familiar that her mind could still recognize it even in that half-unconscious state. Blood…

Someone kneeled down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, careful not to cause her any more pain.

“Watson?” she was too tired to place his voice at first “Sarah?” the second time she heard it, she finally realized who was next to her.

“Jay…” her voice was a whisper only Halstead could hear.

“Get the paramedics in here… RIGHT NOW!” Jay looked up at the others and Antonio ran out.

Sarah’s mind was foggy, her own brain shutting out certain senses to avoid her going into shock. She was trying to make out her surroundings, focusing on the little sounds, trying to keep herself grounded; the footsteps, the familiar voices… She was expecting two sets of footsteps, the paramedics, but she heard more and she could only imagine how bad the situation was.

When the paramedics started working on her, she hoped for their strongest pain med they carried. She would deal with the consequences later, right now all she wanted was to be numb. She felt an injection in her shoulder and she could feel the numbness she was so desperately hoping for spreading into her back. Watson heard someone else approaching but she was still lying on her stomach as the paramedics tried to dress the wounds on her back, so she couldn’t see who was coming.

“Oh my God…” but her mind recognized his voice even in this state.

“Severide, man, I’m telling you, it’s better if you wait outside.” Jay’s voice echoed in the church. No answer came, but no footsteps could be heard either. She didn’t want him to see her in this horrible state, but he was just as stubborn as her, so she knew he would never leave her side.

***

Her next memory was waking up in the hospital, the lights almost blinding her. It took a few blinks until she realized she was in a room, but not alone. A male figure was hunched over in a very uncomfortable hospital chair, his head resting on her bed, his hand holding her left hand. Tears welled up in her eyes and she let them fall… there was no reason to hold them back. She survived. She was alive. The paramedics pain med long gone from her system, she felt every wound the sick bastard had inflicted on her. But this time, the pain meant a good things… it meant she was alive, she survived and the bastard didn’t. The tears kept flowing and she didn’t dare move an inch, not just because it would have hurt like hell, but because she didn’t want to wake him up. She slowly let herself fall back to a deep slumber that would provide an escape from her wounds.

***

The next time she woke up, she was alone in the hospital room, Severide was nowhere to be seen, although his jacket was draped over the chair next to her bed. She was about to call for a nurse when the door opened and a familiar figure stepped in.

“Good, you’re awake.” Dr. Rhodes smiled, flipping through her chart and noting some stuff down “How are you feeling?”

“Like hell…” her throat was sore and dry from barely drinking anything in the last couple of hours. Rhodes handed her a mug full of water which she gladly took and started drinking from in big gulps.

“That’s understandable.” Connor nodded, then took away the empty mug once Sarah had finished drinking from it.

“Look, I’m gonna give it to you straight…”

“I’d appreciate that, Doc.” she interrupted him.

“The injuries on your back are quite extensive, we managed to stop the bleeding without surgery for now, but…”

“But?” she looked up at Connor.

“But I’m keeping you here under observation.” Rhodes delivered the news.

“Okay… for how long?” she hated hospitals.

“As long as your wound require. A week at the very least.”

“Oh God…” she pinched the bridge of her nose “And what are the next steps?”

“Depending on how your wounds heal, we can talk about plastic surgery to hide the scars on your back.” he looked like he was not done with the bad news.

“Dr. Rhodes, you said you’d be straight with me. I’m a cop, my gut feelings never go away, not even now.” she held a small pause “You are not telling me something.”

Rhodes flipped back the chart to the first page and after a deep breath he dropped it into the chair next to her bed and sat down onto the edge of her bed.

“Sometimes I regret not letting my nurses take care of these things…” he shook his head slowly and she was just getting more and more anxious.

“What is it? Just tell me, please.” she pleaded.

“It’s normal to do a full blood test when you get into the ED the way you did. So we did it and we detected high levels of something called hCG. Do you know what that is Watson?”

“No…” he heart was starting to pound in her chest harder and harder.

“Human chorionic gonadotropin, hCG is a hormone produced in the body when an embryo implants in the uterus. Now your level was just above a 100mLU/mL, which indicated you were 6 weeks along…”

“Hold on!” she needed a minute to realize the change in tenses “What do you mean I was?”

“You suffered serious trauma to your abdomen, detective. You’ll have the bruises for a couple more weeks if not more to prove that.”

“Are you saying I was pregnant?”

“We did an ultrasound while you were out, two types actually, but… I’m so sorry, Watson, but there was no heartbeat.” he placed a hand on hers and she didn’t even hear he stopped talking. She was staring in front of her in total disbelief. Her heart was broken and shattered into a million pieces. And when the tears started welling in her eyes again, she just let them fall freely.

_to be continued_


	22. Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm finally feeling good enough to write, so here's a bit longer chapter than usual :)  
I'd love to know your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment after reading. Thank you and stay safe! ^-^

Watson had sat in the hospital bed alone, long after Dr. Rhodes had left. Was it minutes or hours? She couldn’t tell and she didn’t care. One part of her mind was trying to process the loss of a baby she never even knew she was having and the other part was trying to figure out a way to tell all this at the very least to Kelly. He deserved to know, after all she knew with a 100% confidence that he was the father. This was going to break his heart. Connor’s final words still echoed in her mind,

“Watson, you need to talk about this with someone. Trust me. If not with Severide, then at the very least with Dr. Charles. You know the consequences if you bottle this up…”

Deep down she knew Connor was right… not talking about it would lead her down a very dangerous road with unhealthy consequences.

She just finished dabbing up the streams of tears from her face when the door opened and at first, all she could see was at least two dozen red roses and finally Kelly appeared behind them too. He almost dropped the vase when he saw she was awake.

“Oh God, Sarah…” he put the vase on the nearest table and rushed up to her, leaning down to kiss her, but when he noticed the redness of her cheeks, he stopped.

“What is it? Are you okay?” his voice was full of concern as he pulled up a chair and sat down next to her bed.

“There is… there’s something… something I need to tell you…” thoughts were still racing in her mind, her broken heart battling with emotions she never knew she could feel.

“Anything.” he took her hand in his and she nearly pulled it away, but the warmth radiating from his hand somehow had a calming effect on her mind and heart.

“I… uhm… I was…” she struggled to get it out “I didn’t know, otherwise I never would have volunteered…”

“What Sarah? What is it?”

“I didn’t even notice, I was so busy I didn’t pay attention…” at his confused look she realized she wasn’t making any sense, at least not to him.

“They uhm did a blood test when they brought me in… Rhodes gave me the results and some news along with it.”

“Is everything okay?” he was getting anxious.

“Kelly… I was pregnant…”

It took him a couple of seconds to recognize the change in tense.

“Pregnant… wait! Was?”

“Yeah, the blows I got to my stomach… they were too extensive, as Connor put it.”

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Sarah!’ he stood up and cupped her face in his hands, planting a kiss on her forehead.

“Why are you sorry?” her anger quickly took over “You should be angry with me… why aren’t you angry? I… I killed our child…”

For a couple of seconds neither of them talked. He went back to holding her hand, squeezing it hard enough to almost break it. The tears were flowing again on her cheeks as she was staring at their intertwined hands, but she could feel him staring at her.

“Sarah…” he spoke finally, his voice gentle “I’m… I’m not angry, I don’t blame you.” he planted a kiss on the back of her hand.

“I was not paying attention, I should have been more careful…” she shook her head slowly, wiping away a couple of tears still rolling down her face.

“It’s not like we were actively planning on having a kid… you can’t blame yourself for this Sarah.”

Her heart was finally calming down, not racing so hard anymore. She still didn’t know how could he have such a significant effect on her. She couldn’t help the butterflies in her stomach every time she thought about him or saw him. It was driving her crazy. She prided herself for having great control over her emotions, it was very important in her line of work to have your head 100% in the game at all times.

But this time she was losing, her carefully built-up walls crumbling down around her. No matter how hard she was trying to put her emotions into a box, locked away in her mind while she was on the job, it just wasn’t working. Whenever she knew he was going out on a call would make her anxious. Anxious to know he’d be okay. He was one of the best firefighters in Chicago, nobody could deny that, but his job was equally dangerous to hers. She could get shot or blown up during any rough case and he could get hurt just as easily on a bad call. Bullets you can dodge and survive, unless it hits you in the head… but fire? Fire is unpredictable, hundreds of things can go wrong on what seemed like a no-brainer at first.

“Sarah, if you need anything, just say it.” his voice brought her back to the sad reality of the hospital room. She shook her head slowly before looking up at him, only to realize was already looking at her, searching her eyes.

“You..” she sighed “I need you, nothing else matters.” her lips quivered, new tears threatening to fall. She moved to the right side of the bed slowly and he carefully climbed in next to her. He knew he would get in trouble for it, but he didn’t care, at least not about that. He only cared for the gorgeous woman next to him. She was broken, in more than one way and he wasn’t sure if he would be enough to heal her, but rules be damned… he would at least help her try and put the pieces of her heart and soul back together.

She laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and now that she couldn’t see his face, the tears that were welling in his eyes, fell freely. The news broke his heart as well. At one time, many years ago, an ex-girlfriend of his came back pregnant after breaking up. They even moved in together as they both thought the baby was his. In the end, it turned out he wasn’t the father, so they broke up again and his ex moved out of his life. She took a little piece of his soul as he genuinely thought he was going to be a dad. And now, life had taken away a second chance of him being a father.

“I can hear you thinking.” her voice was a whisper, but enough for him to hear her.

“This… situation dredged up some old memories I’m not too fond of…” he sighed, and put an arm around her, careful to avoid the wounds on her back. She looked up at him, surprised or was it maybe shocked? He couldn’t really tell.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not something I usually share, I’m sure you’ve got your set of buried memories deep down…”

“Everyone in our line of work does. If they say they don’t, they are lying…”

“Exactly…” he sighed, contemplating if he should tell her the story of Renée, his ex.

“Hey, if you don’t want to talk about it… I understand.” she placed a soft kiss on the back of his hand. Her soft and kind voice sealed the deal on his decision.

“It relates to an ex of mine, so you can imagine why I’m reluctant…” he took a deep breath before continuing “It happened like what 5-6 year ago now, had a girlfriend who moved to Spain…”

“Ouch, that must have sucked.”

“That wasn’t the worst part… the worst was when she came back a couple of months later, pregnant, saying the kid was mine.”

Watson sat up a bit too fast and winced as the bandages moved on her wounds on her back.

“I feel like there’s a twist coming?” she looked at him, trying to read him, but boy was he good at hiding his emotions, way better than her.

“Yeah… we moved in together, we were getting ready to have a baby, when my best friend started having doubts. Shay insisted that the due date seemed off in her calculations, so I ended up asking for a test…”

“No…” she gasped.

“Yeah… turned out the kid wasn’t mine; my ex had a one-night-stand in Spain… so we ended up breaking things off for good.”

“I’m so sorry.” she leaned up and planted a soft kiss on his lips “And thank you for trusting me enough to share this.”

“I guess this is a signal that I shouldn’t have kids… that I might take after my crappy father…”

“I don’t know your father, but you can’t think like that!” she placed a hand on his chest, right over his heart.

“Kelly Severide, you’ve got one of the biggest hearts in the entire world, you are sincere and loving and you have a tendency to care about others more than yourself. If that doesn’t make you a good person and a potentially wonderful dad, the whole world is screwed.”

A slow smile spread on his face and he leaned down to kiss her.

“Be careful with saying things like that, I don’t want the guys to think I’m a softie…”

She laughed and the sound warmed both of their hearts.

"I love you." she smiled and she laid her head back down on his chest.

"I love you too." he smiled as he watched her get settled. The soft rhythmic thumping of his heart and his light stroking of her hair made her fall asleep before she even realized how tired she actually was. And when Severide finally felt her body relax, he let himself fall asleep too. They both had a long road ahead of themselves and they needed as much rest as they could get to take the first steps.

_to be continued_


End file.
